[3.6] The Blizz Sorc - Icestorm/Winter Orb CI Occultist - Viable For Everything

The Whispering Ice grants you a unique skill - Icestorm - that scales with your Intelligence stat and uses any support gems in the staff without the need to link them (a free 7-link).

Winter Orb is used to channel Icestorm while providing a nice clear speed for trash.

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Energy Leech, Ghost Reaver, Ethereal Feast, Light Eater, Heart of Ice and Arakaali combine for very efficient ES leeching.

Arctic Armour, Fortify, Enfeeble, Frigid Wake, Tukohama/Yugul and Chaos Golem greatly reduce incoming damage.

Enemies that hit you are chilled and blinded.

Most of the enemies are frozen, even bosses occasionally freeze/stagger.

You are immune to stun, chill, freeze, shock, ignite and chaos.

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Winter Orb, Frigid Wake and Herald of Ice make trash packs freeze and shatter.

This build does not rely on flasks and can take advantage of any flasks you want to bring to the particular situation for the best performance.

All map mods are doable with this build, including almost all possible combinations.

The build is based on this item.

Keep in mind that rolling 6S manually with jeweller orbs requires ilvl 50 or higher. Crafting bench can force 6 sockets on any staff.

Only one link is required in the staff (Winter Orb - CwC). Icestorm automatically uses all support gems in the staff without the need to link them.

Important: Always 20q your staff before attempting to 6S it. Quality improves your roll by a lot. You can do it a lot cheaper than via the crafting bench with average luck, as long as it's 20q.

Astramentis solves all stat requirement issues and provides a huge amount of damage via its high Intelligence (which is also boosted by the staff and belt). The implicit mod can be easily rolled to 16 with a few Blessed Orbs. A low explicit roll (below 90) can be turned into a high roll (over 90) with a Divine orb or two.

Shaped amulets and Talismans can do better but they can be very expensive and may require Str and Dex from other sources.


Cyclopean Coil provides a lot of Int while making you immune to shock and ignite (your stats will normally end up in this hierarchy: Int > Str > Dex). It also adds 1% Increased damage per 5 of your lowest stat. With Astramentis your lowest stat is usually about 150 Dex, that's 30% Increased damage right there.

Use rares. The most important stat is Int, followed by ES and resists.

(Syndicate) 3-star Hillock in Fortification can put 28% quality on your rares.
3-star Vorici in Research can convert up to 3 socket to white.


Body armor can have a 6% Increased Attributes mod. Shaper ones can have up to 12% Increased Intelligence mod (ilvl 83+). Those are the best ones. With some luck and a bunch of Alterations, you can hit the %Int suffix + a high tier ES prefix and then multi-mod (2 ex cost) the rest.


Helmets can have a fossil-crafted mod "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance" which is great for this build (use Dense + Frigid fossil).

Rare rings with 50+ Int and as much ES and resistance as you can find. Ideally it should be corrupted with %Increased Int (see Corruption).

You will need 3x Brute Force Solution to convert Str nodes to Int, with their own Int on top of that. 1-2 additional Brute Force Solution or Fertile Mind can be added at the high levels. See the Leveling Guide for the high level options.

The same node can be converted by multiple overlapping jewels. In this build, two small Str nodes near the Scion area are double-converted for 20 Int each.

And some rare jewels with good mods. Resist/damage jewels can also be used if you are struggling to max the resists.

The following mods are good on rare jewels:
+12-16 to Intelligence
+8-10 to Strength and Intelligence
14-16% Increased Spell damage while wielding a staff
14-16% Increased Cold damage
10-12% Increased Spell damage
10-12% Increased Area damage

Str/Dex balance: You want to keep Str above Dex, so that Cyclopean Coil makes you immune to ignite. The tree gives you one extra +10 Str node near Ethereal Feast, but the two Str nodes between overlapping Brute Force Solutions double-convert to Int with -20 Str. As a result, your Dex gets slightly higher than Str. To fix this issue, either use rare jewels with the '+8-10 Str and Int' mod, or simply use a rare jewel instead of Brute Force Solution in the socket near the Scion start.


Watcher's Eye has 2-3 random mods that add extra effects to various auras. The mods useful to this build are:

+(20-30) Energy Shield gained for each Enemy Hit while affected by Discipline - a powerful supplement to the capped ES leech, especially for clearing maps with nasty mods. It works wonders against packs of dangerous enemies that could do more damage than 30% of your ES per second (the leech cap).

(20-30)% increased Energy Shield Recovery Rate while affected by Discipline - extra leech (it increases the leech cap!) is very useful against bosses.

Gain (12-18)% of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield while affected by Clarity - a lot of extra ES. Run lv 1 Clarity for 34 mana.

If you can find a jewel with more than one of these mods, it's awesome. However, such a jewel can cost more than the rest of the gear combined, and it's not really necessary for anything.

Note: Watcher's Eye is optional! It's not required for the build to function, but VERY nice to have.


Might of the Meek fits nicely into the Witch area socket, increasing the Int gain from the nearby small Int nodes and empowering the Heart of Ice wheel. You lose Frost Walker, but the upgrade is worth it.

This build does not need any enchantments, they are all optional. If you get something useful - great, but you'll do just fine without any of this. Boot enchantments are the easiest to get, and they are the most useful - they prevent you from running out of mana.

Do not use crappy items with useful enchantments, they are not worth the sacrifice.

Useful enchantments:

Helmet
30% increased Enfeeble Curse Effect = cursed enemies deal 9% LESS damage
30% increased Frostbite Curse Effect = extra damage
Winter Orb has +2 Maximum Stages = extra clear speed
Winter Orb has 3% increased Area of Effect per Stage = extra clear speed
40% Increased Herald of Ice damage = extra clear speed
N% Reduced Mana Reservation for Discipline or Arctic Armour = extra damage against top bosses (allows using Bonechill with Purity of X)
36% increased Arctic Armour Buff Effect = extra damage and defense

Gloves
Cast Commandment of Reflection when Hit - a temporary clone to distract the enemy

Boots
0.6% of Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if you've Killed Recently = extra ES leech + mana leech.
Regenerate 2% of Life and Mana per second if you were Hit Recently = extra ES (with ZO) and mana regen.

You don't need Uber Lab for the boot enchantment. Merc or even Cruel Lab will do.

Rings, amulets and belts can get %Increased Int (+Str or Dex).

Jewels can get extra damage, reduced mana reservation, or immunity to Maim, Silence, Hinder or Corrupting Blood.

Do not corrupt the staff! 18% block is an excellent defensive mod, and there are no good Vaal mods for staves that would help this build.

Using 2 staves is highly recommended. You can clear trash with one staff, then press X to swap to the other one for the boss or another hard target.

Pro tip: when assigning gems to the skill bar, check the option to 'Always Attack Without Moving' for Winter Orb and Frost Bomb. On both weapons.

If using 1 staff:

Winter Orb - Cast While Channelling, Controlled Destruction, Cold Penetration, Concentrated Effect, Spell Cascade. It can work even with 3S during leveling, but at a lower damage.

Winter Orb must be linked to CwC. No other links are required, Icestorm automatically uses all support gems in the staff. You can, however, link Winter Orb to Controlled Destruction and Cold Penetration if you want.

For bosses swap Spell Cascade for Elemental Focus, and optionally swap Controlled Destruction for Energy Leech if you feel that you aren't leeching enough.

If using 2 staves:

For trash clearing: Winter Orb - CwC - GMP - Controlled Destruction - Cold Penetration, Spell Cascade. Ideally you want to 5L this for a great Winter Orb action (link all but SC).

For single target: Winter Orb - CwC - Energy Leech - Cold Penetration, Elemental Focus, Concentrated Effect. Can 5L this one too (link all but CE), but against the bosses WO damage is not important. Icestorm will do all the damage as long as WO is linked with CwC.

If your staff is only 5S, drop CP until you get 6S.

4L: CWDT (lv 1) - Ball Lightning (lv 4) - Curse of Hit (20/20) - Enfeeble (lv 20)

Important: CWDT needs to be lv 1 and BL must be lv 4 or lower, do not level these gems! CoH can be any level, 20/20 is highly recommended. Enfeeble must be lv 6 or higher, do level it. This setup will not work with low level curse gems or high level CWDT/BL. You want this link to trigger as often as possible, so CWDT must stay at lv 1. BL higher than lv 4 will be too high level for it to trigger. Enfeeble lower than lv 6 will get triggered by CWDT directly instead of getting procced by BL, and will thus only target a small area and lose the increased effect from CoH.

Optional: If you have a 5L chest, add Blind to that CWDT link. If your chest is 6L, add Herald of Ice for even greater curse proliferation.

Optional: Frostbite instead of Enfeeble for greater clear speed.

If using Arakaali and Blood Rage:
4L: CWDT lv 20 - Blood Rage lv 1 - Immortal Call any lv - Summon Chaos Golem lv 20.
Important: Blood Rage should be between CWDT and IC. They trigger in that order, and that's important. Do not insert Blood Rage until you upgrade Arakaali. Read the section 'About Blood Rage'.

If using Solaris:
4L: CWDT lv 20 - Vortex - Immortal Call - Summon Chaos Golem.

Note: You do not need endurance charges to use Immortal Call. It works just fine without them.

A white socket (obtainable from Vorici in Research) lets you switch between Blood Rage/Arakaali and Vortex/Solaris setups easily.

3L: Frost Bomb - Arcane Surge - Flame Dash. Level Arcane Surge to trigger on Frost Bomb (not higher than its mana cost).

2L: Vigilant Strike - Ancestral Call (optional).
Ancestral Call makes VS very easy to hit, otherwise you will have to target it much more precisely.

2L: Arctic Armour - Bonechill.

Place in any free sockets:
Discipline or Vaal Discipline
Herald of Ice
- but make sure not to link any auras with Arcane Surge (it increases mana reservation);
- make sure not to link Herald of Ice with Bonechill either.

Optional: Vaal Righteous Fire instead of Ancestral Call or Chaos Golem. This is an extra DPS option, it gives you a 28% MORE damage boost for 5 sec when you need to kill something quickly. However, Vigilant Strike requires a much more precise targeting without Ancestral Call.

Optional:
4L: Discipline - Arctic Armour - Bonechill - Enlighten lv 3
This allows you to keep using Bonechill when you need to swap Herald of Ice for a Purity aura for certain bosses. Without Enlighten you have 100% mana reserved in that case and have to take out Bonechill.

The easiest way to get 3 or all 4 R/G sockets in Int items is to use Jewellers instead of Chromatics. Using the crafting bench, keep adding a new socket and removing it until you get the color you want. Adding a socket doesn't change the colors of the existing sockets.

A1: Dweller of the Deep ('the Granddaddy crab')
A1: The Marooned Mariner (Fairgraves)
A1-2: The Way Forward (the seal in Western Forest)
A3: Victario's Secrets (platinum busts)
A4: An Indomitable Spirit (Deshret)
A5: In Service to Science (the Miasmeter)
A5: Kitava's Torments (the Reliquary)
A6: The Cloven One (Aberrath)
A6: The Puppet Mistress (Ryslatha)
A7: Queen of Despair (Gruthkul)
A7: Kishara's Star (the Causeway)
A8: Love is Dead (Tolman)
A8: The Gemling Legion (the Grain Gate)
A8: Reflection of Terror (Yugul)
A9: Queen of the Sands (Shakari)
A9: The Ruler of Highgate (Garukhan)
A10: Vilenta's Vengeance (Vilenta)

Wear any self-found gear with Life, jewelry with resists. Use dual wands or wand + spirit shield for max spell damage.

Start
Take Arcane Surge from the chest in Twilight Strand. Kill Hillock and take Freezing Pulse as your reward from Tarkleigh. You will be using Freezing Pulse until lv 28. Support it with Arcane Surge. Buy a Paua amulet from Nessa for mana regen.

In the skill tree:
- Arcanist's Dominion
- Frost Walker
- Heart and Soul
- Cruel Preparation
- Heart of Ice
- Breath of Rime
- Snowforged
- Elemental Overload
41 point tree

Medicine Chest
Take Spell Cascade as your reward from Nessa.

Submerged Passage
Take Frost Bomb as your reward from Tarkleigh and use it together with Freezing Pulse, it's awesome at low levels. If you have a 2L for it, support it with Spell Cascade.

Axiom Prison
Go to town, take Added Lightning Damage as your reward from Nessa and support Freezing Pulse with it. If you have a 3L, keep Arcane Surge too.

Act 2
Go East and kill Fidelitas. Take Herald of Ice as your reward from Greust.

Go West and kill Alira. Open the passage and claim your skill point reward from Bestel. Kill the Weaver. Take Concentrated Effect as your reward from Silk and start leveling it in any free socket. If you have two 3L items, add it to Frost Bomb - Spell Cascade.

Kill Kraityn and Oak and claim your skill point reward from Eramir. Poison Lorrata and take Faster Casting as your reward from Yeena.

Lv 18
Start using Herald of Ice. Support Freezing Pulse with Faster Casting (instead of Arcane Surge). If you have a Tabula Rasa: FP - FC - Added Lighting - Added Cold - Arcane Surge - LMP.

Act 3
After completing the Crematorium quest, take Discipline as your reward from Maramoa and start leveling it (don't use it yet).

Kill Gravicius and take Winter Orb as your reward.

Lv 28
Start using Winter Orb - LMP - Added Lightning - Arcane Surge (or Added Cold). You will need some Dex, an amulet is the easiest way to get it.

Help Siosa in the Library. He will sell you any gems you need.

Act 4
Take the Chaos Golem as your reward from Oyun for killing Voll. Don't forget to free Deshret. When you kill Kaom and Daresso, buy Cast While Channelling from Petarus and Vanya.

Keep going with Winter Orb until you get the staff. Links:
1. Winter Orb - CwC - Freezing Pulse - GMP. Take a 30 Dex node (Agility) to be able to use GMP.
2. Frost Bomb - Spell Cascade - Concentrated Effect.

Once you reach Act 6, you can farm The Incantation card in A6 Western Forest, but this is just an SSF option. You really should be able to buy the staff by then.

You can switch to Icestorm at any level past 38, as soon as you get the staff.

Your staff should be at least 3S: Winter Orb - Cast While Channelling, Spell Cascade (swap to Concentrated Effect for bosses). Only WO - CwC need to be linked. Linking WO with support gems is completely optional. When you get more sockets, add Life Leech (4S), CE (5S), Elemental Focus (6S).

If you don't have Astramentis, get a rare amulet with 50+ total Int. Use Int rings with resists. You will need some Str and Dex. Without Astramentis, you can either find them on the jewelry or take +30 Str/Dex nodes near Elemental Overload (refund them later when you get those stats elsewhere). Chest/gloves/boots/helmet with Int, Life and maybe some resists and AR (not necessary but nice). It is VERY important to have Int on everything! Your damage and leech amount scales from Int.

Cheap uniques good for leveling with WI:


Buy CWDT lv 1 and DO NOT LEVEL THIS GEM. Link it with Enfeeble and level that to lv 5. After that, if you have a 4L item, use CWDT lv 1 - Ball Lightning lv 4 - Curse on Hit (level it) - Enfeeble (level it). But if you don't have a 4L then keep Enfeeble at lv 5 and linked with CWDT lv 1. See the Sockets section for the explanation why these levels.

Auras: Discipline, Herald of Ice, Arctic Armour.

Link Arcane Surge with Frost Bomb and keep it at the level where it gets triggered by its mana cost.

Another useful link is Vigilant Strike - Ancestral Call.

- jewel socket between Witch and Templar (if you have a jewel for it)
- Shaper
- Potency of Will
- Ash, Frost and Storm
- Faith and Steel
- Templar area socket (Brute Force Solution)
- Holy Dominion
- Light and Divinity
- Divine Judgement
- Deep Wisdom
77 point tree

Do the Normal and Cruel lab whenever you unlock them. Take Void Beacon and Frigid Wake.

At the end of Act 5 your resists will be permanently lowered by 30%. You may need to upgrade some of your items to stay at max resists.

When you kill the Brine King, use his Pantheon power until you complete the Uber Lab and become immune to stun. Use Tukohama as the minor power.

After you complete the tree above, start taking Int nodes on the tree in preparation for the next step:
- 4 Int nodes going left and up from the Witch start
- path towards Ghost Reaver
- Ethereal Feast
- Light Eater

The best time to switch to CI is lv 69. This way you can switch to ES gear right there (lv 69 is the required level on the top ES bases).

Make sure to prepare your ES gear before switching. If you haven't killed Kitava yet, get 105% resistances (you will lose 30% for killing Kitava).

You need 11 respec points for this. Do the side quests if you don't have Regret orbs.

Tree before switching to CI

Do the switch:
- refund Cruel Preparation
- refund Heart and Soul
- refund Shaper
- refund 4 spell damage nodes between the start and Arcanist's Dominion
- refund 2 cold/elemental damage nodes above Frost Walker
- take Chaos Inoculation
- Ghost Reaver
- Ethereal Feast
- Light Eater

Tree after switching to CI

Wear your Int/ES gear. Replace Life Leech with Energy Leech. Do the Merciless lab (take Wicked Ward). Head into the maps and work on the final tree:
- Arcane Focus
- Foresight
- Path of the Savant
- Coldhearted Calculation
- socket between Witch and Shadow (rare)
- Shadow area socket (rare)
- socket near Light Eater (Brute Force Solution or Fertile Mind) + 30 Str or Dex node nearby
- Zealot's Oath
- socket between Templar and Marauder (Brute Force Solution)
- socket near the Scion start (Brute Force Solution)
Lv 93 tree

Whenever you do the Uber Lab (it's possible even at lv 70 with semi-decent gear), take Vile Bastion.

After the Uber Lab, if you still have only 1 staff, swap gems in it depending on what you are killing (see Sockets). But the ideal setup is using 2 staves: one for trash and one for bosses and swapping between them with 1 key press ('X').

Might of the Meek jewel opens some more options (see the main guide).

- Arcane Will (extra ES for 2 points)
- Soul Thief (extra ES and leech for 2 points)
- Trickery (20 Int + inc damage for 2 points)
- Ancestral Knowledge (40 Int for 3 points)
- socket near CI (Brute Force Solution or Fertile Mind) + 30 Str or Dex node nearby (4 points)
- if you have Might of the Meek, you can take 1 small Int node nearby for 15 Int