Fyregrass' Comprehensive Freezing Pulse Totems Guide - Act 1 to Maven 9 (Updated for 3.15)

ALL POBS have been updated. This guide is now fully up to date.

This guide will receive further updates following the release of the 3.15

Expedition Announcement Update:
Build got nerfed by approximately 37%. I have play tested these nerfs and whilst they obviously hurt the build, I can still do Sirus 9 on a budget of less than 1 exalted orb. I still expect this to be a strong league starter that will allow you to generate currency fast for a reroll. Of the 13 league start builds I had prepared, coincidentally this build got hit the least, with some of the worst cases facing a damage reduction of 59 and 61% respectively.

We begin the campaign utilising Stormburst Mines, Holy Flame Totem & Flame Wall, taking the skeleton of our Freezing Pulse tree whilst optimising it for the levelling tree, eventually transitioning to Cremation + Armageddon Brand, taking this build into maps until we have acquired a 5-Link Soul Mantle, A Taryn's Shiver and a couple of Jewels, upon doing so, we use the 10-12 passive refunds earned during the campaign to respec our fire nodes into the cold/totem based tree. We typically transition upon finishing the Merciless Labrynth (3rd Ascendancy) and this usually occurs late in white maps or early in yellow maps, however the Cremation/Brand set up can be used right into red maps without every moving to a 5 link.
Included below is a link to a levelling skill tree that I highly recommend using, it contains an act by act breakdown throughout the early campaign as shown below

POB:https://pastebin.com/2GzHKJ6F


Note: Throughout Act 1, you want to be picking up and vendoring magic (blue) items for transmute shards, whilst saving Wisdom Scrolls to Identify and sell rare (yellow) items for orbs of alteration. We will use these later to buy skills and equipment. You will also need 2x essences and 2x Iron Rings (or 2x Ruby Rings), be sure to acquire any essences you can whenever you find them.
You need:
2x Orbs of Transmutation by the end of Act 1
3x Orbs of Alteration by the end of Act 2
1x Orb of Alchemy & 1x Orb of Chance by the end of Act 3
1x Orb of Alchmey by the end of Act 4
3x Orbs of Chance, 4x Orbs of Transmutation, 1x Scroll of Wisdom and 1x Orb of Alchemy by the start of Act 6 at an absolute minimum in order to buy gems from Lilly to begin levelling up for maps

Act 1:

1. Take Purifying Flame upon beating Hillock and deposit it into the Stash for later (maps), Sell everything you have to a vendor except the Glacial Hammer gem which you will use later as part of a Vendor Recipe. Buy 2x Wands and buy Stormblast Mine. Use Stormblast Mine to get to Submerged Passage, take the waypoint back to The Coast, clear Tidal Island, pick up the Portal Scroll that drops off Hailrake, log out (do not use Portal Scroll).

2. Hand in completed quests, Take a Quicksilver Flask + Onslaught Support from Nessa and then buy Flame Wall from Nessa. Take Frostblink + Holy Flame Totem from Tarkleigh's Quest Rewards. It's ideal to put Frostblink with Onslaught Support.

3. Take the waypoint back to Submerged Passage, as you clear through this area, you can/should use the portal scroll when you encounter the bridge, as you can come back here later to kill Dweller of the Deep. if you aren't confident in completing Step 4 within the next 15 minutes, its best to detour and kill the Dweller of the Deep now instead.

4. Clear up to Brutus using Frostblink + Holy Flame Totem to kill packs of enemies quickly while refreshing Quicksilver Flask charges. You can enhance Holy Flame Totem with Flame Wall by placing it in front of Holy Flame Totem's projectiles.

5. Upon beating Brutus, take the waypoint back to town and take your previously placed portal back to the submerged passage to kill the Dweller of the Deep. When you beat the Dweller, logout and back in to quickly return to town. Obtaining Flame Dash + Combustion from the Caged Brute quest reward.

6. Clear through the rest of Act 1 being sure to obtain the Allflame and complete the Fairgraves quest. Upon reaching Caverns of Anger, take the waypoint back to town and obtain Storm Brand as a reward from The Siren's Cadence, after this, purchase Clarity, you can use these gems immediately. Also purchase War Banner.

7. You can kill Merveil by keeping Holy Flame Totem up in conjunction with Flame Wall + Storm Brand. Spam Stormblast Mine when all the other skills are active, if you manage to generate lots of undetonated mines at once, you can place down War Banner to deal double damage temporarily. Remember to Re-Use it afterwards to pick it back up off the ground.


Act 2:

1. Complete Act 2 as normal using the skill set used to defeat Merveil. Continue to look for alteration orbs, transmutes, Iron/Ruby rings, in addition to any Blue-Blue-Blue and Red-Blue-Blue socketted/linked gear.

2. Obtain Herald of Ash after completing the Intruders in Black quest. Use it for some passive extra damage on Holy Flame Totem. Also obtain a 2nd Quicksilver Flask for killing the Great White Beast.

3. Upon beating Root of the Problem, purchase Wave of Conviction + Desecrate from Yeena. Kill all Bandits for the +2 skill points.

4. After completing Sharp and Cruel, take Controlled Destruction as a reward and purchase Elemental Focus. You can utilise these immediately in your Holy Flame Totem links, however you will need to attach Combustion Support to Wave of Conviction going forward since your totem will no longer ignite.

4. Upon reaching Vaal Ruins or Northern Forest, you should reach level 20, this is the point in which you will craft fire damage wands that you will use for the rest of the campaign. You want wands with ideal sockets, use an Orb of Transmutation on them to make them magic items (blue). Next, Vendor 2x Iron Rings with Glacial Hammer + Any other Strength/Red Skill Gem to a vendor to obtain Ruby Rings. AFTER (not before!) this step, use Essences or Orbs of Alchemy on your rings to make them rare items (yellow). Finally, Vendor your 2x Magic Wands, 2x Rare Ruby Rings and 2x Orbs of Alteration to obtain 2x Wands with Tier 6 Added Fire Damage. This will double your damage and be enough to carry you through the rest of the campaign.

5. Complete the rest of Act 2.


Act 3:

1. Obtain Flammability from completing the quest Lost in Love at the start of Act 3. Also buy Anger for much later on, it is only marginally stronger than Herald of Ash at this point however it becomes much stronger as it levels up and once you change skills.

2. Upon beating 'Sever the Right Hand', you should return to town to obtain Armageddon Brand as a quest reward. You can ALSO purchase Cremation at this stage if you have an Orb of Chance. It is important to return to town as soon as you find one if you haven't found one yet because this skill deals most of your boss damage from here on out.
Note: Ideally you want to link Controlled Destruction + Elemental Focus to Cremation whilst linking Combustion Support + Armageddon Brand. If you can't obtain Cremation yet, link its support gems to Armageddon Brand and leave Combustion Support linked to Wave of Conviction.
Use Armageddon Brand to clear zones and Desecrate + Cremation to kill bosses and magic packs (if needed).

3. Obtain the Jade Amulet from The Ribbon Spool quest reward as it will allow you to level up your dexterity based skills.

4. Beat Lab and Ascend at the end of Act 3, taking Conviction of Power.


Act 4:

1. Upon killing Malachai, you want to obtain Ignite Proliferation as a quest reward and then buy Immolate Support.
2. Set up the following links:
a. Armageddon Brand + Immolate Support + Combustion Support + Ignite Proliferation Support
b. Cremation + Elemental Focus + Controlled Destruction + Pinpoint (Buy from Lilly in Act 6)


Act 6:

1. Complete Lilly's Quest in order to purchase Smoke Mine and Pinpoint Support
2. Buy the following gems and try to find room in your links to fit the following gems in, in order to level them up in time for maps:
High Priority
Hypothermia Support - Orb of Chance
Added Cold Support - Orb of Transmutation
Cold Penetration Support - Orb of Chance
Greater Multiple Projectile Support - Orb of Alchemy
Spell Totem SupportSpell Totem Support - Orb of Transmutation
Ice Spear - Orb of Transmutation
Freezing Pulse- Scroll of Wisdom

Low Priority:
Increased Critical Damage - Orb of Transmutation
Hatred - Orb of Alteration
Sniper's Mark - Orb of Alteration

3. Obtain your 3rd and 4th Ascendancy points after the end of Act 7.


Acts 7-10:

1. Obtain your 5th and 6th Ascendancy points right before completing Act 10 as Kitava will reduce your resists and make it much harder to kill. If you feel too squishy, you can do Merc lab after the campaign.

Ascendancy Order:

Conviction of Power > Pursuit of Faith > Ritual of Awakening > Divine Guidance

Levelling PoB:
https://pastebin.com/tkwWi1md
Use this PoB from Level 1 until you have completed the Campaign and obtained the following items:
1. 5 Linked Soul Mantle
2. Taryn's Shiver
3. Self-Flaggelation
4. Clear Mind (Optional)
5. Rain of Splinters
6. 2x Kikazaru Rings
After obtaining these items and being at least about level 80, you can move onto the next PoB. The Levelling PoB's Arma Brand/Cremation set up is very strong and can be used right through to red maps, as long as you are levelling the gems listed in the levelling guide, you are in absolutely no rush to make this transition.


Day 1 Budget Totems:
https://pastebin.com/2uGjVt2w
eHP: 5.8k
DPS: 2.7m with Ice Spear gem swap
Price: 40c (Day 1)

Don't be fooled by the stats listed above, due to splitting damage taken with mana, you run approximately only 3.2k life and this means many melee hits will stun you, leading to your death, additionally the damage listed above is achieved with level 20 gems, you likely will take an entire day of map farming to actually hit level 20 gems. I have personally tested this PoB and it is sufficient to do everything right through to Sirus 8, however I would recommend upgrading it from here.
We have two different directions I would recommend taking the build from here, a tankier build and a more DPS orientated build.


Midrange Tanky Totems:
https://pastebin.com/DSik7XGW
eHP: ~7.6k
DPS: 9m
Price: 25-30ex (Week 1)

This iteration of the build utilises the Enduring Composure/Immortal Call set up on top of layering 40% Mind over Matter with having the benefit of unlucky hits against you (Damage is rolled twice and the lowest hit it chosen). Whilst not totally immune to death, it is certainly very forgiving and allows you to take quite a few hits before death. I would recommend this direction for newer players.


Midrange Arn's Anguish Totems:
https://pastebin.com/URtqp04P
eHP: ~7k
DPS: 13.5m
Price: 25-35ex (Week 1)

This iteration of the build leans upon converting our permanent Endurance Charges into Brutal Charges via the Arn's Anguish belt granting us 24% MORE damage and using Militant Faith to gain 15% MORE damage via our permanent Power Charges. This combo alone accounts for almost a third of all our damage when combined. We also utilise Atziri's Reflection as a means of opening up a second damaging aura (Zealotry) for 19% MORE damage and a helm enchant which grants us 12% MORE damage.


God-Tier Tanky Totems:
https://pastebin.com/E9uZu3Cc
eHP: ~7.8k
DPS: 17m
Price: 100ex+ (Week 1)
This builds upon the previous tanky PoB adding corrupted uniques, a two mod watchers eye, +2 wands and an enchanted Viridi's Veil. This build is insanely tanky for the amount of damage it outputs.


God-Tier Arn's Anguish Totems:
https://pastebin.com/id24C01V
eHP: ~7k
DPS: 36m
Price: 100ex+ (Week 1)
Much like the above PoB, this iteration of the build focuses almost exclusively on damage and runs a number of powerful corruptions, a +2 wand, an awakener slammed/prefix rerolled amulet and a 2 mod Watcher's Eye as well as an expensive large cluster jewel.

Freezing Pulse
This ability rocks high base damage that diminishes over time as the projectile travels. It is ideal while clearing or bossing with this skill to cast it reasonably close to enemies. This allows it to deal maximum damage AND have a higher chance at freezing.
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Ice Spear
This ability works opposite to Freezing Pulse, in that it gains considerable damage (Approx 71% MORE) after it travels a short distance. For this reason, when boss killing, you should try to keep totems positioned a moderate distance from your enemies. When fighting bosses that attack/chase your totems, you will have an easier time managing this by summoning 1 totem first and allowing this to take aggro, then summon the other 3 totems at a distance so that you are only dealing with a damage penalty from 1 totem.
It is important to know that Ice Spear is one of the few abilities in the game that can 'Shotgun' meaning that multiple projectiles can all hit the same target, whereas Freezing Pulse and most other skills do not work this way. This is why we seek out additional projectiles in this build via sources such as a Helm Enchant, Rain of Splinters, Dying Sun and GMP.
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Gem Swaps
This will be explained further in the gem swap section but this build obtains alot of its power from being able to gem swap between Freezing Pulse and Ice Spear as well as optionally swapping two of its support gems as well. Freezing Pulse is a vastly superior skill for clearing maps as its damage is more immediate, it has a larger effective AoE and provides better freezing capability. Ice Spear on the other hand is weak at clearing maps but offers insane boss damage, especially against bosses that position independantly of your character (Sirus, Conquerors).
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Soul Mantle
Being a totem build, we MUST utilise Soul Mantle, this body armor provides us with a free support gem AND +1 maximum totems making it the strongest totem body armor by a mile. It comes with a penalty however that involves cursing the character.
There are multiple ways to mitigate curses entirely:
1. Warding Flask - Not recommended as the effect falls off during boss fights
2. Kikazaru x2 + Sanctum of Thought Notable - Provides a total of 100% reduced curse effect. This is the weakest option as it costs 2x damaging auras but it is also by far the cheapest option
3. Viridi's Veil - Provides Hexproof making us effectively curse immune as long as we wear a magic ring. This is the best option defensively as it makes enemy damage against us unlucky
4. Atziri's Reflection - Gives us the ability to be unaffected by curses. This is the strongest option as we give up the least amount of bonus damage
We can also take advantage of self cursing via the Self-Flaggelation Jewel which grants us 10-20% increased damage per curse affecting us.
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CWDT Immortal Call + Enduring Composure:
Enduring Composure is a small cluster jewel notable that gives us an Endurance Charge per second if we've been hit recently. In other words, every time we take a hit, we get max endurance charges for 12+ seconds. By combining this with Cast When Damage Taken/Immortal Call at Lvl 1 with a 20/20 Inc. Duration support, our IC consumes the Endurance Charges to give us 2.5 seconds of 25% reduced ele damage taken and 59% phys damage reduction. Overall this costs us 3 passive points and 3 gem sockets.

We only run this in the tanky set up because our regular set up uses permanent Endurance Charges, which prevent our Immortal Call from consuming them.
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Blind:
Blind provides us with effectively a 50% evasion chance, in this build we currently obtain it via Pandemonius. This is also why the tanky builds do not eventually drop it in the God-Tier PoB in favour of rare amulets.
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Curses:
We use Sniper's Mark primarily for massively improved Boss DPS as it offers the best multiplier available to us. We usually cannot level it up to 20 fully but it remains the strongest option for us anyway.
We also attain Frostbite via a CWDT set up in some of the PoBs as it will improve our clearspeed marginally and will be over-written vs Bosses.
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Elemental Exposure:
We obtain this via attaching Frost Bomb to Arcanist Brand or by hardcasting it. Unlike curses, it's not reduced vs bosses making it a very strong source of additional damage against bosses.
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Arcane Surge:
We link a level 1 Arcane Surge Support to Flame Dash or Vortex in order to gain this buff every time we flame dash/vortex allowing us to keep 100% uptime of this buff without having to try hard. This buff is worth 10% more damage.

We can also gain this via a cluster jewel in our budget set ups.
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Bonechill:
By attaching Bonechill support to Vortex (on left click), we can force a 14% chilled ground onto the enemy which in turn provides us with 14% MORE damage.
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Cull:
Cull grants us 11% MORE DPS. We obtain these via a WoC/Cull Totem set up. Because we don't use Multiple Totem support in our main link (as it offers inferior damage), we are able to use it here to raise the totem limit to 6 with this skill.
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Ritual of Awakening:
This Ascendancy grants us more damage per totem, in order to fully benefit from this, we use the above mentioned totem set up to keep ourselves at 6 totems for 30% MORE damage.

Medium Cluster Jewels
Generally you want 1x Totem Cluster Jewel and 1x Projectile Cluster Jewel in your medium slots.
You will want 4 or 5 passive jewels, as this allows you access to the jewel slot + 2x notables for only 4 points.

Sleepless Sentries + Snaring Spirits/Ancestral Inspiration/Ancestral Reach
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Yv290YRIY (~50-100c)

This medium cluster provides us with perma Onslaught and some additional damage/utility depending on the second notable you pick up.


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Repeater + Shrieking Bolts
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/2L3052Ysk (~10-20c)
This cluster jewel set up provides roughly the same damage output as the Totem jewel making it a potent and efficient way to spend your points. You should scour/alch these bases until you hit this combo if you can't find one for sale as they are relatively easy to hit.




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Large Cluster Jewels
Our Large Cluster setup is not particularly important, however we have a budget and a premium option which I will explain below. We mostly use this set up to access medium and small clusters, so don't stress this too much if you can't afford the premium option as the budget option is MUCH more accessible.

Premium: 10% Cold Damage per node, 8 passives, Prismatic Heart + Blanketed Snow + Widespread Destruction
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/bVkE2BRTL (10ex+)



This set up positions the unimportant suffix notable (widespread destruction) in the middle at the back allowing us to get the two strong notables + 2 jewel sockets for a mere 5 point investment. Jewels like this cost about 10-20 Exalts usually and its hard to warrant actually investing this much into the build unless you are going for PoE.Ninja leaderboard spots.

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Budget: 10% Spell Damage per node, 3 notables, 8 passives
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/6KBoP3kfG(~10-40c)



This option is way cheaper and not 'that' much weaker than the premium option. We only care to take the 2 notables closest to the jewel sockets so that we spend 5 points to reach the medium clusters. This cluster jewel can be easily obtained by using Aetheric Fossils on an 8 passive base with at least ilvl 68.
You want it to have Practised Caster as one Prefix Notable, and either Sap Psyche or Thaumophase as the Suffix Notable. For the second Prefix Notable, you want any of the following: Ancestral Inspiration, Burden Projection, Conjured Wall and Mage Hunter.

Generic 5/6 Link Set-Up:

This set-up is useful if you only want to swap a single gem at a time for bossing/mapping. All gem set ups assume a 3 Blue/3 Green set up as it is unrealistic to have 4-5 off colours or white sockets too early in a league. Feel free to further customise this to suit your own needs.

1. Cold Penetration (Awakened)
2. Hypothermia
3. Increased Critical Strikes
4. Increased Critical Damage
5. Added Cold (Awakened) - 6th Link
6. Freezing Pulse (Mapping) OR Ice Spear (Bossing)

Dedicated Ice Spear: (Body Armor)

1. Ice Spear
2. Cold Penetration (Awakened)
3. Elemental Focus (Awakened)
4. Increased Critical Damage
5. Greater Multiple Projectiles (Awakened)
6. Added Cold (Awakened) - 6th Link

This set up offers us the largest boss DPS possible but requires 3 gem swaps for bosses. I'd recommend this set up for Sirus/Conqeurors or if you wanted to have a dedicated boss killer.

Dedicated Freezing Pulse: (Body Armor)

1. Freezing Pulse
2. Cold Penetration (Awakened)
3. Increased Critical Damage
4. Increased Critical Strikes
5. Hypothermia
6. Added Cold (Awakened) - 6th Link

This set up provides the best clearing DPS. We DO NOT use multiple totem support in our main link as it only provides about 19-20% MORE DPS which is less than our weakest support gem, Added Cold, which provides about 30% MORE.

Arcanist Brand: (Staff)

1. Inc Duration
2. Sniper's Mark
3. Vaal Righteous Fire
4. Vaal Haste

This set up grants 40% More DPS via Sniper's Mark and some large temporary damage buffs via our Vaal Skills for bosses.

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Bonechill: (Boots/Helm/Gloves)

1. Vortex
2. Bonechill
3. Increased Duration
4. Increased Area of Effect/Vaal Haste

This grants us 14% More DPS via the Vortex/Bonechill combo. As a 4th Gem you can either make the Vortex effect larger or run Vaal Haste if you prefer, this is entirely up to you. Put this on left click and it will auto cast as you move without interupting movement.

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Cull/Exposure: (Boots/Helm/Gloves)

1. Wave of Conviction
2. Culling Strike (Support)
3. Spell Totem
4. Multiple Totems

This set up grants you a 5th and 6th totem to provide 10% MORE DPS via Ritual of Awakening, it also grants 11% MORE DPS via Cull. Only cast this at bosses and only cast it once, otherwise you will need to recast all your Ice Spear Totems to get 4x DPS totems back up.
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Flame Dash/Arcane Surge: (Boots/Helm/Gloves)

1. Flame Dash
2. Arcane Surge (Lvl 1-3)
+ (2x links of 2 gems)
1. Cast on Death
2. Portal

This utility set up gives us about 10% MORE DPS via arcane surge passively while using Flame Dash and also gives us access to checkpointing via Portal COD.

Helmet:

Budget: Enchanted Helm with Life/Resists
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/53kowdSa



You can buy these really cheap in the first few days into a league typically. Once you obtain an enchanted helm, you can Scour+Alch/Essence it yourself until it gets good life & resists as it will maintain its enchant. This is the ideal enchant for our build as we typically want to optimise boss DPS and this enchant adds a considerable amount of extra DPS (12%). Ideally you want a Hubris Circlet base for the highest possible Energy Shield, however this isn't super important, especially early on. Obtaining any helm with this enchant is the highest priority.
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Midrange: Viridi's Veil
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/wk3o4zmIb



This Helm provides conditional immunity to curses which is super important considering the way our build works. Contrary to popular belief, this helm is NOT the ideal offensive option for achieving Curse Immunity. This is because running a magic ring costs us an Essence Worm which in turn means we give up about 19% DPS from Zealotry, we also give up 12% DPS via our helm enchant as Viridi Veils are rare enough to hardly ever be enchanted, let alone with our ideal enchant.
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Premium: Awakener Slammed/Enchanted Blizzard Crown/Hubris Circlet
Tradesite Link: N/A



This option is obscenely strong but also very expensive and can be difficult to fit in with constrained resistances. Below I will provide a crafting method, however I would recommend simply using the Budget option until you are absolutely sure you can fit this in.

1. Obtain a ilvl 85+ Hubris Circlet or Blizzard Crown with the Ice Spear fires an Additional Projectile enchant.

2. Apply a Redeemer Exalted Orb to it.

3. Scour it and apply Frigid Fossils to it until it rolls the Tier 1 Redeemer mod "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance". Ensure the item has no other Redeemer mods on it. It will take 17 Fossils on average to hit.

4. Obtain any Shaper Helmet that has the mod "Nearby Enemies take 6% increased Elemental Damage" and has no other Shaper influence mods on it. Item level and base type do not matter.

5. Awakener Slam them together, clicking the Shaper Helm first and the Enchanted Redeemer influenced helm second.

The item is virtually completed at this point but if you want to craft it further you can do the following:

6. Craft "Suffixes can't be changed"

7. Apply the Harvest Craft "Reforge a Normal or Magic item as a Rare item with random modifiers, including a Life/Cold modifier"
Cold will provide a 6/11 chance to grant "Adds (21–28) to (41–48) Cold Damage to Spells" and a 5/11 chance to grant "(4–10)% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Cold Damage"
Life will provide a 5/8 chance for a + Maximum Life mod and a 3/8 chance for a Maximum Life/ES Hybrid Mod

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Amulet:

Budget: Life/Resist/Crit Multi Amulet

Super Budget Day 1 Amulet
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Ro9wr8Rt7

Higher Budget Jade Amulet
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/KmdeyLgh5




This option will cost 5-20c in the first few days of a league. Its mostly a placeholder item until we can buy better Amulets. It's important to purchase Jade Amulets if possible as we need the Dexterity to level up Sniper's Mark
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Premium: The Pandemonius
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Q2MvHw



This is our near BiS item and it becomes pretty expensive to improve upon this item offensively. This item also provides us with Blind when we hit with Vortex which makes it our best all around item giving us the best mix of damage and defenses. Fortunately it also comes as a Jade Amulet base which is very important for us. You should use Turbulent Catalysts on this item as it buffs the cold damage AND the cold penetration.
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Ultra-Premium: Awakener Slammed/Suffix Reforged Jade Amulet
Tradesite Link: N/A


Crafting this item can be fairly expensive, it is also only superior offensively, it costs us access to Blind which weaknes our boss defenses, so you don't NEED to craft this to progress your build. This is only a BiS item as far as DPS charts go, and offers inferior DPS to Pandemonius without a decent crit multi roll which means you may have to recraft it multiple times.
The crafting process for this item is as follows:
1. Obtain an two amulets, one with "+1 to Level of all Cold Skill Gems" (Redeemer) and the other with "+1 to Level of all Intelligence Skill Gems" (Hunter). One amulet must be a Jade Amulet and neither can have any other Influenced Mods

2. Awakener Slam these two items together, clicking the Jade Amulet last so that it is used as the base.

3. Craft "Prefixes cannot be changed"

4. Use the Harvest Craft "Reforge a Normal or Magic item as a Rare item with random modifiers, including a Critical modifier"
You will want to repeat steps 3-4 if needed to obtain a higher Crit Multi Roll, sometimes you will only hit crit chance and not crit multi.

5. Apply Unstable Catalysts to buff the Crit related rolls

6. Annoint the item with "Disciple of Slaughter"


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Annoints:

Budget: Claws of the Pride
Oils: Amber + Violet + Violet



This annoint grants us a 15% cast speed buff which can be kept up permanently by Flame Dashing at least once every 4 seconds. This annoint grants alot of power for a very cheap price.
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Premium: Doom Cast
Oils: Amber + Azure + Golden



Our BiS Annoint granting us the largest amount of damage. Assassination and Disciple of Slaughter offer slightly less DPS but are equally or more expensive.
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Weapons:

Budget: Taryn's Shiver
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/5npKCa



This weapon is criminally cheap at league start, granting us 90-110% Increased Damage, +2 Levels to our skills and an extra 20% inc damage taken multiplier while we clear maps. This weapon usually costs 1c AND grants us access to Staff nodes which are exceptionally powerful, I would highly recommend obtaining it before transitioning to totems.
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Budget: 300 Sum Wands
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/2pzdP6Gik



I've created weighted sum trade filters that are highly customizable. Sorting by "sum" allows you to effectively sort by DPS.

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Premium: 400 Sum Wands
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/wk3oPlQSb

Premium: 500 Sum Wands
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/jGRgjgZcX

Ultra - Premium: 615 Sum Wands
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/agG9JZjUe

There is a lot of variance at work due to the way different multipliers interact with each other, and as such, I would highly recommend testing these weapons in your own PoB before buying them.

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Body Armor:

Budget: Soul Mantle
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/x7BRH5
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/YBRo5kcY (6 Link)



This is the ONLY body armor we want to use. a 5 Linked Soul Mantle grants approximately 33% MORE DPS than a Tabula Rasa. Upon league start, you should use the Jeweller's Touch prophecy to 5 link Soul Mantle as often buying them 5 Linked will cost an additional premium that is not worth it.

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Ultra Premium: +2 Corrupted Soul Mantle
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/akzLy3se

These Soul Mantles can usually be picked up cheaply enough, but the bulk of their expense lies in the 1200+ Vaal Orbs and Fusing Orbs required to 6 link the item at the bench. Be WARNED, this is expensive and you should calculate the cost of 6 linking a corrupted item before pursuing this option.

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Belt:

Budget: Stygian Vise with Life/Resists
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/QZXYOwvtw



This is a great starting option that is relatively inexpensive at a league start.
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Midrange: Coward's Legacy
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/MYw68qtJ



These belts tend to start off fairly expensive in a given league, but become cheaper as time passes. They are used to access perma-low life in order to benefit from Pain Attunement. These MUST be paired with an Atziri's Reflection or Viridi's Veil for curse immunity, however this is merely a good all-round item, it is not an offensive BiS item. Taking Pain Attunement + this belt costs us Brutal Charges and access to Inner Conviction which yield a larger combined multiplier.

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Midrange: Arn's Anguish
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/90DoQW0fK



This is our BiS offensive belt as it grants us 24% MORE damage via the Brutal Charges AND leaves open the Pain Attunement spot to be converted to Inner Conviction via the Militant Faith Jewel which grants us a further 15% MORE damage. The Belt also brings 60% Fire Resistance and 15% Max Life which make it way easier to fix up resistances and eHP, however it costs us access to Endurance charges which will reduce the effect of our Immortal Call and lower our passive phys reduction slightly whether we use Conviction of Power or Enduring Composure.

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Premium: Corrupted Arn's Anguish
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/W9Kqy0Zfm



Corrupted Coward's Legacies are much rarer/more expensive due to that item being inherently rarer and thus being corrupted less. Towards the end of a league these belts exist in the thousands so picking up one with Inc Max Life or Hatred Effect aren't too expensive.

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Gloves:

Budget: ES Gloves with Life/Mana/Resists
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/agGrLjBTe



Gloves are our lowest priority slot, we don't gain much from influenced mods or unique options and thus gloves end up being one of two dedicated slots that are good to load up on Life, Mana and Resists. You can also use this slot to pick up some bonus dex to level Sniper's Mark all the way up to Level 20.
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Midrange: ES Gloves with Life/Mana/Resists and Influenced Mods
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/EaV4BPZC5



You can customise this filter further if you want, depending on whether you really care for the influenced mods or just want more life, mana and resists.

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Rings:

Budget: Kikazaru
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/d2yZiJ



These are mandatory rings we need 2x of while starting out with totems. Not much else to say here.

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Midrange: Essence Worm
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/3qEku5



We run 1 or 2 of these once we obtain curse immunity as it allows us to benefit from high damage auras without reserving mana, which in turn lets us benefit from Mind Over Matter's defensive benefits.

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Midrange: Magic Ring with Life/Resist
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/G9GKvjbTb



These are used for Viridi's Veil, they grant the immunity to curses and unlucky enemy damage bonuses. Make sure to wear these rings in the correct slot. You only want one of these at most, your other ring should be an essence worm.

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Premium: Magic Vermillion Ring with Life/Resist
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/EaV43QVU5



These are just premium magic rings to use with Viridi's Veil. Expect them to cost multiple exalts at the least. It is recommended to use Fertile Catalysts on these rings as the catalysts will buff both the life roll and the implicit.
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Boots:

Budget: Boots with Life/Mana/Resists/MS
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Kmd8YYqs5



Boots are similarly as unimportant as gloves and being our lowest power budget slot, are a great source of raw stats like life, mana and resistances. We cannot benefit from the Elusive mods and Tailwind does not buff totem DPS either so do not prioritise these stats either.
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Midrange: Boots with High Life/Mana/Resists/MS
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/kGDVk4rf5



Nothing much to say here except that you should probably customise this filter to meet your needs, the ones provided here are just generic suggestions.

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Watcher's Eye:

Budget: Increased Cold Damage with Hatred
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/8rjD3qsV



This is the starter level Watcher's Eye. It is stronger than the Flat Added Cold Hatred Mod, however it is always much cheaper.

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Midrange: Cold Penetration with Hatred
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/L7935tn



This option yields approximately a 40% large damage bonus than the above Watcher's Eye

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Premium: Two Mod Hatred/Zealotry Watcher's Eye
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/EaV4nZyc5



These Watcher's Eye have a wide range of cost and power, you should always PoB these before buying them to ensure you aren't wasting your money.
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Ultra Premium: Three Mod Hatred/Zealotry Watcher's Eye
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/JWnKa0RFl



These Watcher's Eyes tend to be obscenely expensive, and I highly recommend not bothering with these options unless you really want to push this build to the absolute maximum.
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Flasks:

Whilst you can order these flasks in whatever configuration is comfortable for your usual keybinds, I'm going to discuss how I feel you should fill each Flask Slot out given your options.

Slot 1: Quicksilver Flask of Heat
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Zmam0vYSQ


Quite simply, this flask slot will give 40% increased movement speed which simply lets you do content faster and helps to keep on the move which adds a lot of indirect survivability to a build which desperately needs it. The suffix also gives Freeze/Chill removal and immunity which will allow you to fearlessly interact with strongboxes (they will often freeze you when summoning mobs), it makes Delirium content less dangerous, it mitigates chilled ground and phys as extra cold map mods


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Slot 2: Atziri's Promise/Dying Sun
Tradesite Link: (Atziri's Promise)
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/PPKE8QGcL



Tradesite Link: (Dying Sun
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/NYdXhY



Atziri's Promise gives 10-15% additional elemental damage as chaos, which equates to roughly 10% more DPS. You should try to obtain a max roll on this mod. These typically sell pretty cheap from day 2 of a league and also provide some chaos resistance which is a nice bonus to have for free.
Eventually you should upgrade to a Dying Sun. Dying Sun offers better effective AoE while map clearing with Freezing Pulse but provides about 25% MORE DPS when used with Ice Spear making it a much more powerful alternative to Atziri's Promise.

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Slot 3: Seething/Bubbling Divine Life of Staunching
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Lapznv7Un


This Life flask allows you to chug flasks for instant recovery which can help you survive lots of situations you should otherwise die in. The staunching suffix can be beastcrafted on via Einhar if you're making your own flask and this helps remove bleed effects, a necessity in our build.

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Slot 4: Wise Oak
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/PP2kIL


You should start off with a Wise Oak in this slot, I do not recommend bothering to balance resists, just make sure Cold Resistance is highest in order to access the penetration from this slot.

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Slot 5: Enduring Eternal/Divine Mana Flask of Adrenaline
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/yBKVwYBUR



This provides us with loads of passive mana regen which is never removed, important considering our totems cost loads of mana AND we use mana with Mind over Matter. The Adrenaline Mod here is interchangeable with the Heat Mod on our Quicksilver Flask


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Timeless Jewels:

Timeless jewels will go in the spot shown below for easiest access to a timeless keystone node, this position is located above the shadow starting area, note that we only use this jewel in the Arn's Anguish set up.



Budget: Militant Faith (Dominus) with random Devotion bonuses
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/woQ5WjKUb



This jewel provides us access to the 'Inner Conviction' keystone which allows us to gain 3% more spell damage per power charge at the expense of not having frenzy charges (we do not have frenzy charges anyway). Typically this jewel is worth 1 exalt at the start of a league, it becomes cheaper very quickly however. Be wary, you cannot reroll the devotion bonuses on these keystones, only the keystone.

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Midrange: Militant Faith (Dominus) with Double Devotion Bonuses
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/MWorJaDSJ



Be aware that the above link only searches for dual bonuses and NOT for a Dominus influenced keystone. The reason for this is that it is usually cheaper during a league start to Divine Orb your jewel into a Dominus jewel rather than find one with the bonuses you want AND Dominus.

The Devotion bonuses available are 4% totem/ele damage per 10 Devotion and 2% ele resist per 10 Devotion. An ideal tree only picks up 55 Devotion however, meaning you are only gettting 20% inc damage + 10% all resist or 40% inc damage. Either way, it will not cost much more to obtain a jewel with these bonuses, therefore you should pursue them over the budget option.

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Jewels:

This build typically uses 3 unique jewels and has room for 1 leftover small jewel

Budget: Life + Resist + Dex Jewels
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/grlvJE2iQ

These jewels are useful for fixing resists and attribute requirements and not much else.
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Midrange: Life + 1x Crit Multi + 1x Damage Mod Jewels
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Boz24oLc8

A moderate DPS upgrade for a jewel slot, these usually cost 10-90c, though its common to find them priced cheaper by mistake.
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Premium: Life + Double Crit Multi Jewels
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/M3LOzlGcJ

These offer crazy amounts of increased DPS for a jewel, however they cost 2-4 exalts usually.
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Ultra-Premium: Life + Triple Crit Multi Jewels
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/rlW0p8zTQ

These jewels can alone provide a whopping 10% MORE DPS per jewel which is insane considering that on your medium clusters they are literally a one point investment and you have access to several of these slots. They will cost 20+ exalts each typically.

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Clear Mind:
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/eyYbtL



These jewels give us a nice bonus to damage and mana regen in return for not reserving mana which we already don't do due to Mind Over Matter.
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Self-Flaggelation:
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/85wbuV



This jewel can be obtained with up to a 20% roll and it tends to offer a pretty massive boost to DPS overall if you get it with a good roll. These jewels are usually super cheap and can be found by just corrupting Viridian Jewels of any kind.

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Rain of Splinters:
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Zl89CQ



This jewel is inferior to First Snow for Freezing Pulse however it offers a whopping 33% MORE DPS increase when used in conjunction with Ice Spear that is linked to GMP making it virtually mandatory. Try to obtain one with a low roll to minimise the damage penalty.

(Filters will be updated fully prior to 3.15 to include specialised league starer filters for Freezing Pulse Totems specifically, be sure to check back here later)
The filters I use are highly customised each league but are designed so that I can parse as much information at a glance as possible without having to read the names of items. Splinters/Oils are colour coded for example (Maraketh Splinters are Green, Chayula are purple, Crimson Oil is red), Maps have brighter shades of red as they ascend in tier and Chaos Recipe items are assorted based on inventory size. Whilst I don't recommend using someone else's personalised filter unless you have a good feel for it, I have had many requests and so I've decided to clean my filters up and share them with the public. Feel free to contact me if you want any specific filter info but you can find them here:

https://www.filterblade.xyz/Profile?name=Fyregrass&platform=pc

Throughout the league I will further update and add to these filters, as I do, I will list them here. If they are not listed here, I do not recommend using them as they are drafts or outdated.

Always kill all 3 Bandits. The best major Pantheons are Lunaris for mapping and Solaris for Sirus. As for minor Pantheons, Gruthkul, Abberath and Shakari tend to all be good choices, whilst Ryslatha is good for running lab.

In 3.14 due to Low Life being changed to the 50% life threshold and Vaal RF nuking your HP, it is a good strategy to upgrade Ryslatha. This pantheon upgrade makes your seething life flask almost always heal you to full HP immediately after using Vaal RF which saves having to spam ALL your flask charges.