Vortex Trickster: a Life-Based Approach to Cold DOT

https://poeplanner.com/AA8AAQcADyYAAICU8fiX-_W0OOUZjDZVS2HiJpUWv7TRyAxUR6a-nsRd8g5ItzAUCRNtJogRlgcelS7w1UlRj_rQ0EcGUrLbeiua41bb52wI8Yq0xWKsbIzC7AW1jb_UIzBx3ahLeDpCUUc31O0_MHyNfSP2TZJ_xpMnvoqhL2wLIvRtGZf0UlM9X5eVTLPQH-_rBAfr5F8qg9tVxjpYrJgRD0wtF1SfAdHkjYJT1Aj0akO86iycES18g-vumuBFnVNShTKXLUlPvKqnCNgkVkgc3LiTKPqYrTLRRUfAZgSzogA8Be98rv-Cm9WmMPg62CcvkFUaOI8anaozo9o7iw5auTy2o6ORR4CzAAAAAAA=

Kill all Bandits for the extra two skill points.

If this is your first character in a new league, it is always worth considering helping Alira for the extra Elemental Resistance. If you do this, you can always change your bandit choice later using the Vendor Recipe: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Deal_with_the_Bandits.

Choosing Trickster gives us lots of synergy with Mind Over Matter, durability while clearing maps, and plenty of damage multipliers for our Damage Over Time.

Specifically, Trickster grants us the following:
- Power/Frenzy Charge generation, which both grant increased damage
- 32% increased Maximum Mana
- 20% Chance to recover 10% maximum Mana on Kill
- Recover Life/Mana/ES on Kill
- 6% Reduced Damage Taken
- 15% Skill Effect Duration (Vaal Cold Snap, Immortal Call)

My recommendation is to leave "Weave the Arcane" for your last 2 Ascendancy points.



Ascendancy Alternatives: Occultist

If this is a Trickster Guide, why are we talking about Occultists? Well, if the object of the guide is to provide a Life-Based MOM alternative to the CI Occultist Vortex build, we can still talk about what our build would look like as a Life-based MOM Occultist.

Our build is playable as an Occultist. Simply swapping the starter nodes over to Witch and taking "Frigid Wake" and "Malediction" in the Occultist Ascendancy will be a 200k DPS Increase over our Trickster DOT DPS vs Shaper. So is this strictly better?

No -- like most things, this is a trade-off.

- We become more reliant on curses, which have less effectiveness against bosses. Also, we need to worry about how to apply those curses, because as a Mind Over Matter character, we prefer not to use a bunch of Blasphemy curses.
- Without being a Trickster, our safety while mapping drops considerably. The Trickster Ascendancy has a lot of synergy with Mind Over Matter, and gives us great life/mana/es recovery for a DOT-centric build.

If you want to consider going an Occultist, I would recommend doing a ES-based character instead. This too is a trade-off: although Occultist has great bossing potential because of ES recharge, you still miss out on Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics.

In the POB, be sure to look at the Helmet. The helmet has one additional modifier:
- Nearby enemies take 29% increased Elemental Damage

This additional modifier is the calculation for Bonechill, which is applied by our 4-link Cold Snap. Bonechill says, "Enemies Chilled by Supported Skills take (10-29)% increased Cold Damage over Time." Bonechill is not currently supported in POB at the moment, so the DPS calculations in this forum guide are adjusted to accurately reflect the in-game DPS.

DPS Highlights only focus on the Damage Over Time.

Our Vortex DPS comes from the following sources:
- 6 link Vortex
- Vaal Righteous Fire
- Elemental Overload*
- Elemental Equilibrium**
- Aspect of the Spider
- Bonechill
- Frost Bomb
- 2x DPS Weapons

*Elemental Equilibrium*
Elemental Equilibrium requires that we hit the enemy with non-cold damage. To do this, we use a weapon crafted with "trigger a socketed spell when you use a skill." This automates the casting of Orb of Storms and Storm Brand, which both hit multiple times over a duration, and both of which have no cold damage. Be sure that none of your gear has "Adds # to # Cold Damage to spells."

**Elemental Overload**
Elemental Overload requires us to crit every once in a while (every 8 seconds) in order to maintain a massive 40% More Damage buff for our damage. We do not need any "increased critical strikes" anywhere on our gear or links -- Orb of Storms and Storm Brand will crit often enough to ensure that we have the occasional crit that we need.

Vortex (socketed in Body Armor):

Vortex
Elemental Focus
Controlled Destruction
Efficacy
Hypothermia
Swift Affliction

If your body armor has the corruption, "+1 to level of Socketed Gems", then use Level 4 Empower if possible. This variation is included in the POB linked above.

Vaal Cold Snap (socketed in Helmet):

Vaal Cold Snap
Elemental Focus
Efficacy
Bonechill

Mana Reservation:

Aspect of the Spider

I have Aspect of the Spider crafted onto my ring.

Weapon 1 ("Trigger a socketed spell when you use a skill"):
**It is worth noting that this weapon + crafted modifier + 3 link gem setup is SUPER good for the build. This setup should be highly prioritized.**

Orb of Storms
Frost Bomb
Storm Brand

Weapon 2:
Flame Dash
Faster Casting
Vaal Righteous Fire

Gloves:
Vigilant Strike
Ancestral Call
Blasphemy
Temporal Chains

Note: this Blasphemy reserves no mana because we are using the amulet, "Solstice Vigil." If you do not have this amulet, then drop this Blasphemy setup -- it's nice, but not needed.

Boots:
Cast When Damage Taken (level 1)
Immortal Call (level 3)
Increased Duration (level 20)
Phase Run (level 20)

We do not use any flasks to inflate our DPS. Sulphur Flasks give 40% increased damage, but the utility granted by our other flasks outweigh that increase, in my opinion.



Seething Life Flask of Heat
Chemist's Quartz Flask of Warding, my personal favorite flask
Alchemist's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline
Chemist's Basalt Flask of Staunching
Taste of Hate

-----Soul Ripper-----
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Soul_Ripper

If you have the currency to spend on it, a Soul Ripper Quartz Flask is a way to significantly increase the Mapping Speed of the build. Soul Ripper has the unique mod, "Vaal Skills used during effect do not apply Soul Gain Prevention," which allows you to have virtually permanent uptime of your Vaal Cold Snap. This flask is not necessary to the build, but is a consideration. I happily leveled to 97 without this flask.

If you can find a jewel with the corrupted implicit "Corrupted Blood Cannot Be Inflicted on You," feel free to replace the "of Staunching" suffix with the suffix of your choice.

Here is a poe.trade link for all the things you might look for in a normal jewel:

http://poe.trade/search/ererikeniturui

Feel free to play with the poe.trade link above to find reasonably priced jewels. Be sure to set the league to your current league.

Here is a poe.trade link for all the things you might look for in an abyss jewel:

http://poe.trade/search/edaheyodonitet

Note: You do not want any source of "Adds # to # Cold Damage to Spells". This would ruin your Elemental Equilibrium and significantly decrease your damage.

Feel free to play with the poe.trade link above to find reasonably priced jewels. Be sure to set the league to your current league.

My gear is all self-crafted, with the exception of the uniques.

I recommend using the Lab Enchant, "Vortex has #% increased Cooldown Recovery Speed." This is a Quality of Life enchant that allows us to spam our Vortex more freely, especially while mapping. Strictly in terms of bossing and damage output the enchant for "40% Increased Vortex Damage" is better.

I am currently using a Tabula Rasa with the corruption, "+2 to level of socketed duration gems." I normally use a Loreweave with 80% Maximum Resistances and as high an Elemental Damage roll as possible, but my Loreweave disappeared in a tier 3 Corruption Chamber. Thanks, Alva.

Both weapons should be Sceptres with an implicit of "#% Increased Elemental Damage."

Note that the mainhand weapon (the dagger) has "Cast a socketed spell when you use a skill." This is very important for the build, and helps automate our Elemental Equilibrium, Elemental Overload, and Frost Bomb debuff.

Note that the offhand weapon (the sceptre) has "#% Chance to gain Arcane Surge when you kill an enemy." Our build has Arcane Surge while clearing maps, but often does not maintain this buff against end-game boss encounters.



3.6 SYNTHESIS DISCUSSION

Synthesis League introduces two considerations:
- Hatred, a 50% aura which now grants "More Cold Damage"
- Zealotry, a 50% aura which grants "More Spell Damage"

Both of these auras are potentially usable for DPS in this build, but interfere with our desire to have unreserved mana for Mind over Matter. We have the option of dropping "Mark of the Shaper" and using an "Essence Worm" instead, and socketing one of these two auras into the ring. This is something that you will have to experiment with on your own.

POB: https://pastebin.com/xVznELzU
On the POB Skill Tree, be sure to check the Leveling Trees as well.

Generic Leveling Gear, which is great for any character:
Boots: Wanderlust
Body Armor: Tabula Rasa
Helmet: Goldrim
Amulet: Karui Ward, Atziri's Foible
Rings: Le Heup of All, Praxis
Belt: Leather Belt with Life + Resistances
Gloves: Lochtonial Caress

Leveling Weapons:

My recommendation is to dual wield wands or sceptres throughout the entire game. A shield is a great source of additional life and resistances if you need it, but the amount of damage that you get from two weapons is very high.

Any Sceptre with an Implicit of "#% Increased Elemental Damage" can be crafted with "+1 to level of socketed cold gems" very easily, and is a great choice before transitioning to something like a Tabula Rasa.

Here is a link to the Wiki Page for Vendor Recipes: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vendor_recipe_system

Example +1 Sceptre for Leveling:


Mid-Leveling Upgrades:

Mind Spiral
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Mindspiral

Mind Spiral is a great helmet for any Mind Over Matter character, especially early in a new league.

Spine of the First Claimant
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Spine_of_the_First_Claimant

Spine is a fantastic weapon for this build, and can carry us into the endgame.

Early Endgame Gear:

Rime Gaze
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Rime_Gaze

Rime Gaze is actually more damage than the helmet that I ended up crafting for myself. However, my helmet has 92 Life, 3% Increased Maximum Life, and has almost as much damage as Rime Gaze. I value the life, so I opted against using this unique helmet.

Fenumus' Weave
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Fenumus%27_Weave

If you are not able to find a Beastcraft to put "Aspect of the Spider" on one of your pieces of gear, I recommend considering using this pair of unique gloves. Not only do they grant you Aspect of the Spider, they also have some life. The "damage with hits" does not translate to Damage Over Time, which is our focus, but every little bit of damage helps.

Solstice Vigil
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Solstice_Vigil

Solstice Vigil does not look amazing at first glance. The life is mediocre, and the damage is replaceable. However, the "Shaper's Presence" extends the duration of all buffs on your character. For us, that includes Vaal Cold Snap, Fortify, Flask Effects, Frenzy/Power Charges, and Vaal Righteous Fire. In addition to this, the free Blasphemy + Temp Chains is quite nice, and the flat mana regeneration is always useful on a Mind Over Matter character. I recommend this amulet as the endgame amulet, but it is absolutely replaceable by a rare with life, spell damage, and/or cold damage over time multiplier.

Note: I DO NOT recommend using an Impresence Amulet. The Cold-Variation has flat cold damage added to all spells, which will ruin your Elemental Equilibrium. The Chaos-Variation, although it has "#% increased damage over time," is just a weak choice.

I wrote a guide. Check it out.
https://www.poelab.com/crafting-an-item/

If you have any questions about crafting gear, or about whether a craft is very important or just optional, please either leave a comment here or come talk to me on stream, at https://www.twitch.tv/perrythepig .

Weapon

Method: Alt/Aug/Regal on a i78+ Opal Sceptre or Void Sceptre (not Shaper, not Elder)

Ideally, you want to hit t1 Cold Damage Over Time Multiplier, "Heartstopping". Our best rare item is a 1-stat rare with just that one mod. Otherwise, all we really care about is the Cold DOT modifier, maybe some spell damage or cold damage, and the crafted mod for "Trigger a socketed spell when you use a skill."

Avoid crafting on a Shaper/Elder base. This eliminates some possible affixes from the pool, so you should hit relevant rolls more often while spamming Alterations.

Rings

Method: Alt/Aug/Regal on a i72 elder Ring (Opal if damage, two-stone if you need resistances)

We want to prioritize one thing on our ring: Tier 1 Life.
Rings are a nice place to craft "Aspect of the Spider" as a Suffix via beastcrafting in the Menagerie.

Other good mods:
- Dexterity
- Strength
- Resistances

This ring needs to be an Elder Ring because our other ring is a "Mark of the Shaper," and we want to benefit from the "#% Increased Spell Damage if your other ring is an elder item."

Body Armor

Loreweave is an amazing option for us, and one of the reasons that a Life-based approach to this build is a good option. We want a Loreweave with 80% Maximum Resistances, and as much Life + Elemental Damage as possible.

Alternatively, a Tabula Rasa with a good corruption ("+2 to level of socketed duration gems", "+1 to level of socketed gems", etc.) is a good choice for DPS.

Belt

Method: Fossil Crafting an i84 Stygian Vise

Reference this site and click on the corresponding base at the top menu:
https://poedb.tw/us/mod.php

Fossils:
- Pristine Fossil - (More Life Modifiers, no Armor/Energy Shield/Evasion modifiers)

And one or both of the following:
- Frigid Fossil - (More Cold Modifiers, no Fire Modifiers)
- Prismatic Fossil - (More Elemental Modifiers, No Poison or Bleeding Modifiers

Use a two-socket resonator with the above two fossils, and craft your own belt.

Aim for the following:

- # to Maximum Life
- #% increased Cold Damage
- Resistances

If you're feeling ambitious, using a 3 Socket Resonator with all three of the above fossils (Pristine/Frigid/Prismatic). This will have an even better potential outcome. Life + Cold Damage + Elemental Damage would an extremely good belt for this build.

Helmet

Method: Fossil Crafting any i84 Helmet

Reference this site and click on the corresponding base at the top menu:
https://poedb.tw/us/mod.php

Fossils:
- Pristine Fossil - (More Life Modifiers, no Armor/Energy Shield/Evasion modifiers)
- Frigid Fossil - (More Cold Modifiers, no Fire Modifiers)

Use a two-socket resonator with the above two fossils, and craft your own helmet.

The Frigid Fossil allows us to create a helmet with the modifier, "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance." This mod, along with as much life as possible, is our target helmet. Aim for the following modifiers:

- Prefix: # to Maximum Life
- Prefix: # to Maximum Life / #% Increased Maximum Life (Delve Modifier)
- Suffix: Nearby enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage

If you have a helmet with an empty Prefix, you can craft one of the two following modifiers on your Crafting Bench:

- Prefix: # to Maximum Life / #% Increased Armor
- Prefix: #% Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage
- Prefix: +1 to Level of Socketed AOE Gems / #% increased Area of Effect (my recommendation)

Note that our helmet is going to have a 4 link Vaal Cold Snap setup, so any "socketed gems are supported by..." will apply to our Vaal Cold Snap.

I recommend buying a helmet with a relevant Vortex enchantment from Uber Lab, and then crafting on that base. Shaper helmets can potentially be pseudo-5 Links with "Increased Area of Effect" or "Hypothermia." Elder Helmets can be pseudo-5 Links with "Concentrated Effect" or "Less Duration". Regular helmets, while not being pseudo-5 Links, are easier to create overall.

Gloves

Method: Fossil Crafting any i84 Shaper Gloves

Reference this site and click on the corresponding base at the top menu:
https://poedb.tw/us/mod.php

Fossils:
- Pristine Fossil - (More Life Modifiers, no Armor/Energy Shield/Evasion modifiers)
- Frigid Fossil - (More Cold Modifiers, no Fire Modifiers)

We want a pair of gloves that have the following:
Prefix: #% Increased Maximum Life / +# to Maximum Life
Prefix: +# to Maximum Life
Suffix: #% Increased Cold Damage Over Time Multiplier

Ideally, this would be on a pair of "Fingerless Silk Gloves", but those can get become expensive quickly. Those are not needed for this build.

As an alternative to rare gloves, you could use a pair of 2 Socket Command of the Pit: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Command_of_the_Pit_(2_Abyssal_Sockets). Our build currently doesn't maintain Arcane Surge against single targets, and this would introduce a good 10% More Spell Damage buff to the build. If you go this route, I recommend dropping Blasphemy + Temporal Chains.

Boots

Because Multimodding was so strong during 3.5 Betrayal League, I ended up crafting this pair of boots:



They're interesting, and they're pretty good, but they are absolutely not needed. Find any pair of boots with a high Life value, some movement speed, and whichever resistances you need.

We do need the sockets in our boots, and we don't benefit highly from Abyss Jewels. I do not recommend using Bubonic Trails here.

Amulet

My recommendation is to use Solstice Vigil. A rare with a high Life value, Spell Damage, Cold Damage, or Cold Damage Over Time Multiplier could be used instead.

Note that because we are primarily a DOT build, Cold Penetration from something like Pandemonius does not benefit us.