Cold Chronomancer Megathread. All content cleared. Leveling guide added. Low-budget build added.

Why does Frostbolt still pierce and not explode with Snakepit?

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leopard2lx#3801 wrote:

Why does Frostbolt still pierce and not explode with Snakepit?

Put it into the left ring slot. All projectiles will explode after forking.

Alright, there is a new league in 3 weeks, so I wanted to advise a few things for a fresh start:

- Please note, that the sorceress is weak during acts 1-2. In general, we ain't good before some point regardless of ascendancy/element of choice. I do recommend to play another build that is more suited for a league starter, like Minion Witch with SRS/Arsonists.

- If you dead set on starting sorceress - don't strictly stick to a cold element early. Pay attention on what weapons you get. For example, if you get a wand with +1-2 to all fire spells - go with fire spells and adjust your passive tree before you get a decent cold wand. If you get a better lightning wand - go with lightning spells. Arc-Unleash is good, paired with Mana Tempest it will do all bossing damage you need. The only mandatory spell I recommend regardless of the weapon - Frost Wall, and, probably, Ice Nova w/Spell Echo and Glaciation for CC.

- Funny fact, but I can recommend Fire spells with SRS and Arsonists. So pay attention to Rattling Sceptres too. If you get +1 to minion spells with some spirit - go for minions route/some passives.

Uniques you would need:

- For Cold spells route follow this: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/an1bc0nm. I strongly recommend to buy Crest of Ardura at lvl 28 and Uncut Skill t9 for Frost Wall before act 2 boss.

- For fire/minion route, try to get Pariah's Embrace or Enfolding Dawn chest. Oaksworn shield is good only if you didn't get a decent wand yet.

- For lightning spells Kitoko Gloves is a must here. My overall campaign experience with Cold Spells/Freeze was way better than with pure lightning before those gloves.

Thanks for the tips, monik. I plan to frequent this thread during the new season.

My first playthrough I went as fire and it was decent. I was trying to leverage Ember Fusillade but got a bit stuck with it as you can't really determine the target they hit. Ended up switching to cold and ran with wall/cold snap/bomb for a while. Halfway through cruel is when I stumbled across this thread :D

Yesterday I was running a level 65 through some maps, and they mentioned that they weren't getting optimal experience because I was taking them through T15s -- we tried some T10-12 and they seemed to gain exp faster. Is this actually a thing or was it just coincidence? Haven't been able to find anything definitive about this.

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Hugh_Jaynus#9160 wrote:

Thanks for the tips, monik. I plan to frequent this thread during the new season.

My first playthrough I went as fire and it was decent. I was trying to leverage Ember Fusillade but got a bit stuck with it as you can't really determine the target they hit. Ended up switching to cold and ran with wall/cold snap/bomb for a while. Halfway through cruel is when I stumbled across this thread :D

Yesterday I was running a level 65 through some maps, and they mentioned that they weren't getting optimal experience because I was taking them through T15s -- we tried some T10-12 and they seemed to gain exp faster. Is this actually a thing or was it just coincidence? Haven't been able to find anything definitive about this.

I'm doing some SSF runs atm, and I got +2 cold Gelid staff in Grelwood. Feels so damn good. I want to take back my words, Cold is the best during act 1 =) Ice Nova + Unleash, Frost Bomb, Freezing Shards + Arcane Tempo, and Freeze are better than anything that other elements can offer this early fr.

Well, I had to farm some gold to buy that thing, but was worth it.

About lvling other people - stick to map lvl +/- 3 of their levels - that's how to get the best exp here. I mean, for lvl 65-71 run t4 maps, than t10 for lvl 71-77, than jump in t15 =) Be sure to get breaches.

For those using ice nova what support gems are you running with it? Also, what skill lvl are you guys running with it? While completing content isn't much of an issue with the frostbolt setup, I've hit a wall in terms of progression. I'll make a mental note to share my build when I get home in a few hours. I know spark is thr end game skill to use, but I don't want to swap to a full lightning setup personally.

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ZerioctheTank#3728 wrote:

For those using ice nova what support gems are you running with it? Also, what skill lvl are you guys running with it? While completing content isn't much of an issue with the frostbolt setup, I've hit a wall in terms of progression. I'll make a mental note to share my build when I get home in a few hours. I know spark is thr end game skill to use, but I don't want to swap to a full lightning setup personally.

One of the builds linked on the first page makes use of Ice Nova: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/so1e9n01

I don't have much experience with it myself, so can't really help. Understandable not wanting to switch to lightning -- bolt/wall is way more fun in terms of gameplay IMO. But spark just makes life so much easier when it comes to mapping... all of the maps that are really bad for the bolt/wall combo are ez pz with spark. Comet is still your primary source of damage, though.

I've recently been running some maps with a Stormweaver that has like an 820k damage spark. My spark is just under 40k; but my comets after soul offering are about 880k (and even higher with crit). We did an Arbiter run, as I wanted to see how effective his spark was vs my comets. While he was doing noticeable damage, it was nothing compared to the rain of comets. That was quite satisfying, as when we run regular maps his spark pretty much kills everything before I can even cast lol.

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Hugh_Jaynus#9160 wrote:

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ZerioctheTank#3728 wrote:

For those using ice nova what support gems are you running with it? Also, what skill lvl are you guys running with it? While completing content isn't much of an issue with the frostbolt setup, I've hit a wall in terms of progression. I'll make a mental note to share my build when I get home in a few hours. I know spark is thr end game skill to use, but I don't want to swap to a full lightning setup personally.

One of the builds linked on the first page makes use of Ice Nova: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/so1e9n01

I don't have much experience with it myself, so can't really help. Understandable not wanting to switch to lightning -- bolt/wall is way more fun in terms of gameplay IMO. But spark just makes life so much easier when it comes to mapping... all of the maps that are really bad for the bolt/wall combo are ez pz with spark. Comet is still your primary source of damage, though.

I've recently been running some maps with a Stormweaver that has like an 820k damage spark. My spark is just under 40k; but my comets after soul offering are about 880k (and even higher with crit). We did an Arbiter run, as I wanted to see how effective his spark was vs my comets. While he was doing noticeable damage, it was nothing compared to the rain of comets. That was quite satisfying, as when we run regular maps his spark pretty much kills everything before I can even cast lol.

Personally I can't help with Ice Nova too, but, at least, it should explode Frost Wall reliably. Astral Projection, Ambush, Considered Casting, smth else. Can check if Mana Flare is good for you.

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I can't understand why people play with just spark ignoring LC existence.
Anyway, with similar gear both my SW and Chrono are similar in power. Difference is, SW can spam spark forever, Chrono can't.
Chrono has AoE slow and Time Freeze, while SW has Electrolute.
CoC-Comet is better than CoS-LC in general.
In terms of damage per hit, CoS-LC is stronger on SW.

Still, I prefer my Chrono by far as an all content build. Both are good, but Chrono is way more safe to play.

When I first started playing, after taking Chrono asc, I kept seeing people talking about how Stormweaver was so much better. For a while (still on campaign) I was kind of regretting my choice. Now I'm glad I went with my gut :)

Well. Unfortunately, I will skip 0.2 update.

So yeah, I won't be able to test things or offer any support for some time here.

I'll try to adjust maxroll page with the changes, but that's it.

Good luck, guys. have fun.