[0.4] Freeze & Self-Chill IceNova Stormweaver (Perfect League Starter and Endgame Racer)
" Thank you for your appreciation! Here is my comparison between the "Shackle of the wretched" and the "Scold's Brittle" Method: Upsides of Shackle: • Can be way stronger with Stormweaver's "Heavy Snow" and the right mod-combination (because of double self-chill) • Glove-Slot instead of Helmet-Slot (Opens Helmet-Slot for "Sandstorm Visage") • Opens Belt-Slot, because you do not damage yourself and therefore, you dont need the recovery • No need for Chaos Inoculation, because chill-reflection ignores ailment threshold: -> no need for energy shield as your defense layer -> easier to handle Stuns, Freezes, Ignites and Shocks Downsides of Shackle: • Extremely pricey, if you go for the optimal mod-combo (> 60 divines) (needed for double self-chill) • the cheaper version (1 div) needs 150 - 200% increased duration of chill to feel smooth, which results mostly in too much opportunity cost • you only self-chill, if you apply chill to a monster: Awkward in trials, backtracking situations or during immunity phases of a boss. • you lose "Sine Aequo" in Glove Slot (results in harder freezes) Conclusion: If you can afford the optimal mod-combo, your mapping strategy prevents backtracking and you really want to min-max this character, you can strive for Captainlance9 Method. Otherwise I would not recommend his method. Last edited by Bomchickawowow#1243 on Dec 31, 2025, 9:56:53 AM
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" Such a detailed answer, cheers mate. appreciate it! Guess I will follow both builds to some extent, cheers. |
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This seems great and I am building it out as we speak but I do not see the support gems. I may be blind, I have not yet followed a guild from the forums until now. Can you help?
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" The support gems are under the chapter "Skill interaction & Setup" in the Spoiler "Skill Gem Setup and Details". Just press "SHOW" and you can find it! I Hope you have fun trying out this build :) |
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Hitting a bit of a wall at level 90 in juiced content. The build feels pretty good when you're able to 1 shot packs/rares and take out bosses with a single combo, but when I'm doing juiced maps or even worse the temple where it takes several casts to take out a pack or up to several combos on bosses, the build starts to feel difficult to manage.
The main issue I think for me is damage because when I'm not clearing packs in 1 shot, that means more buttons need to be pressed like frostwall and bomb, or pressing life and mana flask repeatedly due to having to cast more spells and taking more damage, and at that point the increased speed from self chill is almost negligible if you're having to hang out for a bit at each pack. Not sure what upgrades I would need to make it feel better. Survive-ability is also a problem but could just be a skill issue. Here's my character if you have an suggestions, didn't see any other builds running this setup. https://poe.ninja/poe2/builds/vaal/character/toanerz-7163/IluvCooooldVaal Last edited by toanerz#7163 on Jan 3, 2026, 10:09:39 PM
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" First of all, congratulations that you pushed to that level of content! Now you have to min-max this build, otherwise you will struggle with juiced tier15 / tier16 maps! For damage increases, you have to go for increases of skill-level, because skill-level is the biggest damage increase for spells you can get! So here are the important upgrades, you should make: • get at least 2x Level 20 Uncut Skillgems to upgrade your IceNova and Frostwall to Gem-level 20 • get +1 gem-level through corrupting by using Vaal Orb (or by Crystallised Corruption) on your IceNova and Frostwall. (but be sure, that they have gem-level 20, have 20% Quality and 5 Sockets before, because you cannot alter them afterwards) (and only do this, if you have a LV20 Uncut Skill gem in the back, because corrupting can also result in -1 level or -1 socket) • upgrade to a "+5 level of all cold spells"-wand • upgrade to a "+3 level of all spell skills"-amulet (or at least a +2 level) For defense increases, you have to cap your elemental resistance to 75% without needing augments on helmet, boots and focus and get more base energy shield on gear. ("Greater Iron Runes" in helmet, boots and focus result in way bigger base energy shield) Following ES stats can be reached on gear without sacrificing core-mods or 2-digit divine-investments: • Helmet possible 340 ES (currently 256 ES) • Boots possible 360 ES (currently 261 ES) • Focus possible 460 ES (currently 302 ES) To squeeze some more elemental resistance, you can use Quality on Rings and Amulets through the breach-currency to increases a specific elemental resistance I hope I could help you! Happy min-maxing Last edited by Bomchickawowow#1243 on Jan 4, 2026, 4:16:18 PM
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UPDATE: I added a link to my character profile, added character costs, updated the gem setup, added jewels, added Instilment-Options and added an explanation of the playstyle for self-chill with this build.
Last edited by Bomchickawowow#1243 on Jan 10, 2026, 11:58:26 AM
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