An ambitious COLD witch build

Greetings fellow exiles!

I will keep this post short and uncomplicated, as I am still lacking both knowledge and competence regarding this amazing game. That's why I've put "ambitious" in the title - this build is based on my 3 days of in-game experience and a couple of theorycrafting hours. With that being said I am throwing it out there, at the mercy of you fine gentlemen, hoping to receive some constructive feedback, suggestions and opinions overall.

Here it is:


The idea is to build your damage output around Ice Spear, supported with Increased critical damage, Faster projectiles, Lesser multiple projectiles and Faster casting.

In order to keep your distance from those big bad mobs, I've figured that a Spell Totem with the spell Summon Skeletons, chained with Minion Life, would do a great job of giving you that needed breathing space. I believe the Frost Wall would be a decent way of protecting your totem and yourself if you get in a bad spot and need to reposition.

The "increase buff effects on you" nods should work well with the aura Discipline.

I am having some difficulty imagining how this build would perform in the late stages of the game and whether or not I should use Freezing Pulse or Arctic Breath along with Ice Spear.


In terms of gear I would recommend focusing on percent increasing energy shield specifications and spell damage.


I would be most grateful if you guys take a minute or two out of your time and discuss the above written. It will undoubtedly assist me in my in-game struggles :).

Thank you for your time.

Hi, glad to see your enjoying the game, let me offer some suggestions.

First plan your builds around 80ish points at first. Its not realistic to get 111 points anytime soon, and if your build doesnt work without all 111 you will be in trouble long before getting there.

I would suggest using freezing pulse over ice spear as your main attack. Ice spear is better put on a totem once you get it with lmp and faster casting. This works very well to freeze all your incoming enemies if you keep your crit chance up some. Use of Frostwall is also good defensively.

I modified your build to something that might work well for what you intend. I am also playing a similar build myself right now.



As you can see I went from the witch starting area getting the cast speed up through cold damage nodes over to Inner focus. Also heading north later on to get the crit nodes up top. I also get the mana regen and max mana nodes on the right side of witch start, getting lord of the dead for the extra zombie and minion life buff. This isnt needed just something i like to have leveling up.

I took the es nodes in the witch area then the crit multiplier and cast speed on the way to shadow area. Picked up doomcast and the chaos resist, though that can be respeced later if you want chaos innoculation at higher level. In the shadow area I took the goood crit nodes and the es/ev nodes. If you want you can take the 3 cast speed nodes instead of the 3 elemental damage nodes in the shadow area, but i prefer the elemental ones since you can then access three 8% projectile nodes which affect freeqing pulse and ice spear, since they are both projectiles.

On my build i started as shadow, which you can start as either. When leveling i would grab the first two spell damage nodes at witch then get the mana and es nodes. After that i'd head to shadow area to get the crit nodes while slowly adding in cold damage nodes. Depends on what you find you need more of at the time.



Here are some skill setup suggestions. Freezing pulse with faster projectiles, and lmp once you get them. After that add iir/iiq or whatever you want really. For ice spear attatching it to a totem with lmp and faster casting will keep most enemies frozen for you. Once you get enough slots adding cold penetration to fp is great too. I would also get discipline and clarity with a reduced mana gem for auras. As a curse frostbite, or whatever works good for you. Attatch a minion life and damage if you want to your skeles and zombies . Some prefer to put skeles on a totem. Up to you, i only do it on certain battles or situations, leaving ice spear on totem at all other times.


Also since some people dont quite get how much certain nodes boost your damage, here is the order of effectiveness on damage from highest damage increase to lowest damage increase.

High spell dam nodes, or elemental (18%, 12%, 10%,9% ect)
8% projectile nodes ( if they apply to your attack)
6% spell nodes
6% cast speed nodes
5% spell dam nodes
3% cast speed increase
60% crit chance
45% crit chance
20% crit multiplier
30% crit chance
25% crit nodes
10% multiplier crit nodes
20% crit chance nodes
15% crit chance nodes





Hope this helps, feel free to build the way that is the most fun for you!

Thanks a lot this was exactly what I was looking for as a new player myself:D

Just one question, why take the STR and AGI nodes? What do they add for a wizard?