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

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timesink#4640 wrote:

I've been lurking in this thread since launch. Learned something today on a discord chat that I thought might be relevant here.

The Invocated Efficiency passive gives 45% increased damage to all triggered spells but only restores the 3% mana back on invoked spells. So Elemental Invocation gives back mana but Cast on Critical / Cast on Freeze procs do not. I was unaware of the difference in wording between the two lines on the passive.

Anyway, I feel like I've read here that some people expect "cast on" skills to work with that passive. They do for the damage but not the mana restore apparently. Which makes the points maybe better spent elsewhere?

Great take. It's still great for the damage output it offers tho.

Yeah I had no idea the 3% mana recovery wasn't working on Cast on crit. Thanks!

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valqor#0701 wrote:

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Mox_Bober#4415 wrote:

Guys, I'm running a pretty regular version of monik's build - much appreciated! - On a random t15 tower run I dropped +97 Astramentis.

At this significant point of my poe life lol I'd like to try and fit it here instead of gaze, but not sure how to make it work.

Maybe I could ask for some advice here? :)

sell it.. they are going for 250+ divines. Buy a Dream Fragments Sapphire ring with an ingenuity belt. Then buy amazing items for all the other slots and get that creamy 7k+ mana.

got the ingenuity 78% hope that's good enough, now, question, what is the acceptable minimum dream fragments roll you'd say? 23-24% or less is ok too? I have one shot at trying this and don't want to repeat my stupid mistake buying a wrong unique for big bucks xDD

also, do I understand correctly that this basically means moving to spark cause I can't use snakepit anymore?

any advice/insights on what to adapt would be appreciated :)

also, valqor, monik and everyone who drives here and helps - you're real MVPs, thank you for being good sports and not abandoning this thread and builds - amazing!

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monik390#5560 wrote:

In short.

Swap to weapon set 2 -> use the buff -> swap back to weapon set 1 again.

To make it easier we are binding some skills to weapon sets.

The secondary weapon set has only Conductivity and Soul Offering.
All other active skills are bound to weapon set 1.
Blasphemy and Grim Feast are bound to both weapon sets.

This way when you are using Conductivity - you automatically swap to weapon set 2 and actually summon minions for Soul Offering.
When you are using any other skill, i.e. Frostbolt, you automatically swap to weapon set 1.

Effects from weapon sets remain after the swap. You still will have your Soul Offering/Conductivity with increased duration.

Class skills like Time Freeze cannot be bound.

About the gear - i've added low-budget gear/skills/tree in my maxroll - follow that and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the clarification, I'll have to mess with it some more. I've been testing it in my hideout and as soon as I swap weapon sets, the spikes disappear immediately. Also some weird bug where the minions won't appear unless I remove and then put my boots back on. Just tested with the boots off and have the same issue.

And thanks to valqor as well, guess I just need to practice until I have the pattern down.

Meanwhile, moved to Spark.

Added spark edition (passive tree, some gear, skill gems, WIP): https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/6x7q0cm3

Full Simulacrum run (lvl 82, no edit): https://youtu.be/4RyvuRiB_8E

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Played to lvl 96 with Spark (~30 maps), and did Simu after right that w/o optimizing the passive tree (I really should get that 3 mana to 4.8k lmao).
Thoughts:

- The difference between Dream Fragments (got via Alva gamble) and 252 mana ring: ~250 mana (almost 4.8k pool vs 4.55k)... I'm not sure how big is Ingenuity here, but w/o it frags ain't worth it fr.

- I feel 0 difference between this and Frostbolt/Snakepit in Simulacrum. Really.

- I feel 0 difference on high-delirious maps too (>60%). That's the point I felt Frostbolt was better but I had stronger FB back then. Now I can clarify pros and cons of both setups, bc both of them are equally strong in delirium on equal gear.

- I feel a drastic difference on non-delirious maps. Spark is blasting here. I got what you mean only after I forgot to apply emotions before vaaling waystone.

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Frostbolt:

+ Cheaper.
+ Better energy generation. Explains by explosion shotguns and stronger damage per hit.
+ Reliable wall breaking.
+ More Comets during mapping.
+ Access to +5 Wands w/o gutting clear.

- Overall, slightly slower (from my POV).
- Locked to Snakepit.

Needs investment in QoL.

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Spark:

+ More mana. Means more Comets per mana pool on bosses, more survivability, more regen.
+ Better breaches.
+ More endgame scaling options.
+ Overall, slightly faster (from my POV).

- Definitely more expensive.
- Locked to +4 to All spells wand at max.
- Don't have reliable wall breaking. Spark can crit for less than walls HP.
- Fewer comets during mapping.

Needs investment in damage.

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In terms of damage, Comets of Frostbolt/Snakepit setup with +5 wand are equal to Spark setup with +4 wand.
+1 level to Comet is almost equal to Archmage 600-700 mana difference.

However, at bosses the setup with +5 Cold wand (vs +4 all) will be stronger if instead of Snakepit put a decent mana ring. Same goes about +4 cold and +3 all on a lower budget.

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About the cost:

Wand filter: 70% crit chance, 20% cast speed and
- +4 to cold and +3 to all spells cost the same 1-3d.
- +4 all spells cost from 8-15d.
- +5 cold cost from 5-8d.
- Cost of high-end wands is about the same.

Snakepit's cost is about the same as cheapest 250 mana rings. Better breach rings are more expensive.

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To sum up, I don't recommend Spark setup on a low budget. There is some breakpoint when it becomes good, but before that Frostbolt is good enough.

Please don't consider Spark as some kind of magic pill that will solve all your problems. It won't, unless you are running pure lightning build with CoS-LC. We ain't stormweavers, it's harder for us to scale it.

Thank you for the updates first of all.
Playing this build for like 1 week /end game/
All content is one shotted basically.
Im just worried about - basically im capped at 1.5k ES and 3.5k mana ( can get maybe around + - 100 mana from Breach ring)
Playing Snakepit and Breach ring currently with all other items 160+ mana each.
Is that right thingy or i gotta do something about?
Also running Comet - 200k (Conc eff) / 313k (infusion) is this good numbers?(Thats the numbers on the spell)

Frostbolt -Crit chance is 56%
Frostbolt -cast time 0.43 (0.28 from Quicksand)

Thanks for the answers, the build is super enjoyable.
Edit : still 93lvl going for -> (Repulsion)
edit2 : or maybe i gotta go for the last Jewel socket + 2 int nodes.

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monik390#5560 wrote:

- The difference between Dream Fragments (got via Alva gamble) and 252 mana ring: ~250 mana (almost 4.8k pool vs 4.55k)... I'm not sure how big is Ingenuity here, but w/o it frags ain't worth it fr.

Holy shit guy, that's amazing! How much gold did it take?

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Mox_Bober#4415 wrote:

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valqor#0701 wrote:

"

Mox_Bober#4415 wrote:

Guys, I'm running a pretty regular version of monik's build - much appreciated! - On a random t15 tower run I dropped +97 Astramentis.

At this significant point of my poe life lol I'd like to try and fit it here instead of gaze, but not sure how to make it work.

Maybe I could ask for some advice here? :)

sell it.. they are going for 250+ divines. Buy a Dream Fragments Sapphire ring with an ingenuity belt. Then buy amazing items for all the other slots and get that creamy 7k+ mana.

got the ingenuity 78% hope that's good enough, now, question, what is the acceptable minimum dream fragments roll you'd say? 23-24% or less is ok too? I have one shot at trying this and don't want to repeat my stupid mistake buying a wrong unique for big bucks xDD

also, do I understand correctly that this basically means moving to spark cause I can't use snakepit anymore?

any advice/insights on what to adapt would be appreciated :)

also, valqor, monik and everyone who drives here and helps - you're real MVPs, thank you for being good sports and not abandoning this thread and builds - amazing!

If you're trying to save some money and want to min/max, do the math on the percentage effect to your mana and see what number will cause you to cross a 100mana threshold for Archmage. random example without any price knowledge, lets say a 26% is going for 120divines and will get you over a 100mana threshold and a 28% is going for 200divines and will not get you over the next threshold, there may not be a reason to upgrade to the higher percentage. I would of course do the mana ring after you upgrade your other slots. Just create a budget so that you have enough at the end to buy the ring still. Also be sure when doing the math on the mana ring that you add the 78% from your ingenuity. But 100%, buy the other slots first with a pre made budget, then do the math for the ring % to that amount of divines you are willing to spend to figure out what threshold you can cross. I might not have explained this well, my wife is watching doing this instead of laying the hard wood floors I promised I would do today HAHA. So I better get back to it lol. Oh remember that if you buy a non-corrupted version of the mana ring you can just pop mana catalysts onto the ring to get it to 24%. That may be the most optimal route for divines to %.

Hello friends!
Maybe a stupid question, when I use Soul Offering, if I change back to Weapon Slot 1, the spikes disappear.
Am I missing something here?

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leo_medici#6692 wrote:

Hello friends!
Maybe a stupid question, when I use Soul Offering, if I change back to Weapon Slot 1, the spikes disappear.
Am I missing something here?

Spikes and buff aren't the same. Look at your buff timer. Can easily get this to 15/20s depending on your setup. Have fun!