TbXie's Freezing Pulse Totem Hierophant Gear, Jewels & Flasks (PoE Necropolis)

TbXie

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Summary – TL;DR

As per usual, nothing matters more than capping your Elemental Resistance before anything else. This means modifiers on gear are subordinate to Resistances as long as you’re not capped. Since you’ll be running a decent amount of Unique items, it’ll be important to look out for a lot of resistances on your Rare pieces!

We’re providing you with an extensive analysis further down the page but chose to start off with an overview / recommendation.

Note: I would not recommend playing this build in Solo Self-Found until you have access to a Kikazaru Kikazaru ring (or a Viridi’s Veil) and a Soul Mantle Soul Mantle, unless you are a very experienced SSF player who understands how to obtain these items most efficiently. Once you have these items, the rest of your items are either non-mandatory Uniques you can replace with whatever suits you best, or Rare items which don’t have to be well-rolled whatsoever.

Our recommendation:

Item Slot Item Name
Head Viridi's Veil Viridi's Veil
Amulet The Pandemonius The Pandemonius
Chest Soul Mantle Soul Mantle
Gloves Sorcerer Gloves Sorcerer Gloves with High Life, Resistances and Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies
Boots Any rare boots with Life, Resistances and Movement Speed
Belt Coward's Legacy Coward's Legacy
Rings Rare Ring with Dex, Resistances or an Essence Worm and Life and 1x Kikazaru Kikazaru or a Magic Ring (Viridi’s Version)
Weapon Rare Wand with Spell Damage, Cast Speed, +1 to level of all (Cold) Spell Skill Gems, Crit Multiplier & Crit Chance
Shield Rare Shield with +1 to Maximum number of Summoned Totems, Maximum Life, Spell Damage & Cast Speed

For crafting Rare items, you can check out all the affixes that can roll on an item base, depending on its level, influence, and many other factors, using our affix tool.

Late Game Swaps to make

Early on in the game you wont have access to any Maven drops and thus you wont be able to pick up a Viridi’s Veil. This means you’ll have to resort to the old tech of using a Rare Helmet, Rare Belt, 1x Kikazaru Kikazaru and the Asylum wheel in the tree (see image) to counteract the negative effects of Soul Mantle Soul Mantle. However, later on in the game, Viridi’s Veil offers you the option of running 2 Ring Slots & a Coward's Legacy Coward's Legacy making you gain 30% more damage if you allocate the Pain Attunement node. The only conditional here is that it requires you to run a magic ring but that’s honestly not even that much of a downside for us (Make sure this is ran in the RIGHT ring slot). The Helmet is a very very big upgrade once all of the abovementioned items come together and is something you should definitely consider getting asap.

Kikazaru requires the following wheel in the tree:

Viridi’s Veil requires a Magic Ring in your Right Ring Slot:

Spell Suppression

Once you’ve optimized all your damage, there’s a particular route you can take. When you look in the Path of Building you will see 4 unused items. A pair of gloves, a pair Atziri's Step Atziri's Step, another Pandemonius with a new annoint and a new shield. This setup lowers your Freezing Pulse damage from +- 7m to +- 6m (while Ice Spear remains a ridiculous amount of damage) but caps out your Spell Suppression which is an incredibly potent layer of defense. These items will be incredibly expensive & require you to drop damage but Spell Suppression is an insane mechanic. Go for this if and only if you’re looking for a super-late-game investment.

For a path of building on Spell Suppression, check the standard PoB which has extra trees & gear for the Suppression variant.

Armour Pieces

Helmet

So, as this is our first dedicated explanation of gear, I’d like to mention that the bases of your items don’t matter a whole lot, but you’d like them to all be the same. Since you’re running 3 Rare pieces of gear, if you were to focus on Energy Shield, you could probably get up to 700 Energy Shield. This increases your effective HP pool by about 10%. On their own terms, Armor and Evasion aren’t much worse at this. Getting one of each though, benefits you very little, so if you decide to opt out of Energy Shield pieces, at least try to make the other pieces somewhat coherent, whether that is by using Armor or Evasion pieces.

The most important part of your helmet is the enchant. Cast Speed is effectively always a More multiplier for any caster build, but generally is more of a bait-stat as you have to think about Mana sustain. Since you’re playing a Totem build, however, none of that Mana matters anymore and you can just make them fire as much as you want (and as a little sidenote, seeing Totems fire 15 Freezing Pulses 4x per second is incredibly satisfying!). The “#% increased Freezing Pulse Cast Speed” enchant increases your damage by about 12%, which is an awful lot for an enchant that’s probably 10 Chaos Orb Chaos Orbs. Hit it a couple of times with a Shrieking Essence of Greed Shrieking Essence of Greed until you hit some nice Resistances with your Life essence.

Lategame, if you’re also running Gemswaps for Ice Spear, the Mark Effect enchant is better, as per Path of Building.

  1. #% increased Freezing Pulse Cast Speed
  2. +# to Maximum Life (at least 85)
  3. Elemental Resistances (until capped)

Late Game Setup :

Body Armour

As mentioned in the Introduction of the build, Soul Mantle Soul Mantle is almost impossible to replace. The main reason for this being that the Spell Totem Support Spell Totem Support is (maybe rightfully so) such a high opportunity cost. It gives your Freezing Pulse 30% Less Cast Speed and 26% Less Damage. A really solid support gem generally gives 35% More damage, so getting 26% Less and 30% Less while losing a link was just a huge problem for Totem builds.

This is perhaps obvious, as otherwise you’d put every skill on a totem, so it’s not too surprising and Soul Mantle Soul Mantle introduced a fairly balanced mechanic. You now no longer lose a link, you get to use totems which don’t care about Mana sustain at the cost of 30% Less Cast Speed and 26% Less damage, while getting an extra totem which (depending on the build) is either a 20 or a 25% More Multiplier. While that is reasonably well balanced, that also means Soul Mantle is almost mandatory for Totem builds to function.

Gloves

There is nothing too special in this slot. Generally, you can settle for Life & Resistances on your Gloves, and if you do, make sure to get a lot of it while you’re at it. Otherwise, you can also look for the temple mod, which grants you increased damage with Hits against chilled enemies. This modifier always comes with 40+ % Cold Resistance, so as long as you find a pair of these with a high Life roll, and perhaps are able to craft an extra Resistance on it, you’re looking at a fairly solid upgrade which is usually super cheap.

  1. +# to Maximum Life (at least 85)
  2. Elemental Resistances (until capped)
  3. #% increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies

Use the Searing / Eater implicits that give you a chance to Unnerve & Increased Effect of Marks

Boots

As per usual, for boots, you ideally want a pair of Two-Toned Boots. Getting an extra 24% Resistances is just really hard to pass up on for most builds nowadays. Additionally, you want Movement Speed, Life, and Resistances.

  1. #% Increased Movement Speed (25+ but ideally 30)
  2. +# to maximum life (at least 75)
  3. +# to Elemental Resistances (enough to cap)

Use the Searing / Eater implicits that give you a Brittle Ground when you’re moving & Damage per Endurance Charge. Drop the Brittle Ground on the boss for an absolutely insane boots to your DPS.

Belt

Early game, we recommend using a Leather Belt Leather Belt with some offensive modifiers as you should be having a very easy time capping resistances elsewhere. The affixes you should look for are the following:

  1. +# to maximum Life (at least 90)
  2. #% increased Elemental (or Cold) Damage
  3. #% increased Damage
  4. #% increased Elemental Resistances (until cap)

Late Game Setup (post Viridi’s Veil) :
Coward's Legacy Coward's Legacy

Accessories

Amulet

If you can afford it, a catalysed The Pandemonius The Pandemonius is just too good and too much of an “slap on an forget” slot that I wouldn’t bother doing something else. It does however put some pressure on the rest of your gear for resists & dexterity.

If you chose to forego the Pandemonius, an ideal Amulet would have +2 levels to your Freezing Pulse Freezing Pulse through the +1 to Level of all Cold Skill Gems and +1 to Level of all Intelligence Skill Gems, but since you want a multitude of other modifiers here, I decided to just include a +1 Amulet. On top of the +1, you’re looking for a very high Life modifier, a decent chunk of Dexterity and some (craftable) Resistances.

  1. +# to level of all Cold / Intelligence Skill Gems
  2. +# to Maximum Life (at least 70)
  3. +# to Dexterity
  4. +#% to Elemental Resistances (until cap)

Anoint

Whispers of Doom is the best notable damage-wise. This allows you to run Mark+Curse as explained in the Skills Section. Before you can afford this anoint, Doom Cast is a solid alternative. It provides us with some much needed Critical Strike Multiplier & Critical Strike Chance! Get it as soon as possible!

Rings

One Kikazaru Kikazarus is the cornerstone of the build. Together with Asylum, these make you unaffected by the curses placed on you by Soul Mantle Soul Mantle. You can’t run a Soul Mantle Soul Mantle without this ring and nodes, pretty much. You should be catalyzing them with Caster Modifiers to make them grant 60% reduced effect of Curses.

Later on in the game, post Viridi’s Veil you can unallocate Asylum, remove the Kikazaru Kikazarus and swap them for a Magic Ring in your Right Ring Slot.

Your second ring can be a source of damage but I would recommend to use it as a statstick. Find your missing resists & attributs here.

Weapon

As far as damage on your wand goes, as per usual for Spell builds, you want a +1 to level of either Cold or Spell Skills Gems (or both). Other than that, Cast Speed is your best modifier for damage, followed by Spell Damage of any source (Spell Damage, Spell Damage + Non Chaos Damage as Chaos Damage, Cold Damage) and Critical Strike Multiplier. Critical Strike Chance for Spells is the last preferred modifier that isn’t too far behind.

  1. +# to level of all (Cold) Spell Skill Gems
  2. #% increased Cast Speed (at least 20%)
  3. #% increased Spell Damage
  4. #% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells
  5. +#% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier

Shield

So the shield is probably the hardest piece of gear to find and can either be insanely cheap or incredibly expensive. Generally, a lot of people who sell these kinds of shields can’t see the use for it and might list them very cheap. Some might understand why it’s valuable and might list it for a pretty good chunk of currency. The last time I played this build, as a boss killer for my team, we purchased a shield that was close to mirror-tier for 200 Chaos Orb Chaos Orbs. Be on the lookout for upgrades, regularly, until you find one you can afford. Until then, just run any Shaper shield with the +1 to Maximum number of Summoned Totems modifier and some Life.

  1. +1 to Maximum Number of Summoned Totems
  2. +# to Maximum Life (at least 85)
  3. +# to level of all (Cold) Spell Skill Gems
  4. #% increased Cast Speed
  5. #% increased Spell Damage
  6. #% chance to Deal Double Damage
  7. Gain #% of Cold Damage as extra Chaos Damage

Atlas Influence Modifiers

With the release of the Siege of the Altas expansion, several easily acquirable implicits were added to the game. I will be listing preferred affixes here for all rare items regardless of whether the guide recommends you to use a rare item in this slot. This, to enable you to make your own choices and gives you a bit more opportunity to play around with rare items, should you so chose.

Gloves

  • Freezes you inflict spread (Exarch)
  • Chance to Unnerve Enemies on Hit (Exarch)
  • Increased Effect of your Marks (Eater)

Helmet

  • Increased Frostbite Curse Effect (Exarch)
  • Cold Damage Penetration (Exarch)
  • Physical Damage from Hits taken as any Elemental Damage (Eater)
  • Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills (Handy in certain circumstances)
  • Increased Effect of Arcnae Surge (Eater)

Boots

  • Drops Brittle Ground while Moving (Exarch)
  • Increased Damage per Endurance Charge (Exarch)
  • Regen per Endurance Charge (Eater)

Body Armour

  • Aura Effect for Zealotry or Malevolence
  • Less Damage taken per # Attribute (take highest attribute)

Flasks

I believe flasks are highly preference-based. One isn’t just outright better than another one for specific / certain builds. Obviously, sometimes, there’s a set in stone set of Flasks you should be using just because they synergize with your build so well. I wouldn’t say those really exist in this setup, but I’d strongly advise you to stick with the setup listed here.

In this particular case, none of the Flasks are incredibly mandatory but the first Flask I’ll suggest is a Sulphur Flask Sulphur Flask with the Hummingbird suffix. Cast speed is just so fricking good for this build. It triumphs any other DPS flask and is astonishing!

If you want to map fast, you should wear a Quicksilver during mapping so this is something I’d always run. Going fast is fun & effective! Don’t be hesitant on picking this up. Other than going fast, being alive is a nice feeling too. Therefore, I’d opt into a Granite Flask Granite Flask as I think they’re fairly strong now after the buffs to Armour.

Next up on the list is a Diamond Flask Diamond Flask! Get one of these as soon as you can! Lastly, you should be running an instant Divine Life Flask Divine Life Flask to use in those panicky moments.

Regardless of which utility Flasks you go for and whether you follow our recommendations or not, you’ll need to stick to the suffixes we have picked for you (Staunching, Heat). The affixes on your non-unique Flasks can be changed around, but I recommend the following setup (based on the Flask duration, charges, and affix priorities):

Our recommendation:

Slot Flask
1 Bubbling Divine Life Flask Divine Life Flask of Assuaging
2 Chemist’s Diamond Flask Diamond Flask of the Penguin
3 Experimenter’s Granite Flask Granite Flask of the Eel
4 Chemist’s Quicksilver Flask Quicksilver Flask of the Mussel
5 Chemist’s Sulphur Flask Sulphur Flask of the Hummingbird

Be sure to check out our Flask Crafting Guide to learn everything you need to know about how to set up your non-Unique flasks.

Jewels

Cluster Jewels

Cluster Jewels are incredibly potent scalers for Freezing Pulse Freezing Pulse as you can chose from a variety of options! We opted to suggest easily acquirable Cluster Jewels as the build doesn’t particularly mind picking up an extra small node left or right.

If you are looking for the most optimal way to acquire your Cluster Jewels, or have any other questions whatsoever about them, such as how to craft or price them, we refer you to our complete guide on Cluster Jewels.

Now, because you want to be able to run four Medium Cluster Jewels, you will need two Large Cluster Jewels. As mentioned, you don’t need to look for expensive ones. Just picking up Large’s with two Notables will suit you just fine. You’d like to get a Blanketed Snow just because its the best Damage notable and whatever other notable that helps.

For your Medium Cluster Jewels, you’re looking for the Eye to an Eye and Repeater on one of them, as they provide you with the most Damage. On the second one, you want a Sleepless Sentries just because its the it’s a lot of Damage & Speed and an Ancestral Echo for its QoL. Do note that you want those to be at most 5 Passives.

Unique Jewels

First of all, the build can run a Watcher’s Eye with Zealotry or Hatred mods. Depending on what you get, either Aura might actually be better.

Next up is the Rain of Splinters Rain of Splinters. This provides you with additional projectiles. Try to get a really good roll with as little reduced damage as possible. This jewel, however, is obtainable only by corrupting a jewel into it. Therefore, it might be a while before you get to obtain one, but you can use a Multiple Projectiles (Lesser or Greater) Support until them in your main Links.

The last unique Jewel is Self-Flagellation. Self-Flagellation Self-Flagellation grants you up to 20% increased Damage per curse on you. Since you’re inflicting Hexes on yourself through Soul Mantle Soul Mantle this is a very potent combination. Since there’s 9 Hexes in the game currently, if you spam enough Totems out, you’ll eventually be cursed with all 9 of the Hexes making it so this jewel gives you 180% Increased Damage.

Regular Jewels

Because you want to stay relatively tanky, I really like grabbing #% increased Maximum Life on every single one of my Rare jewels. Your best modifiers are Critical Strike Multiplier followed by any source of Increased damage. I suggest you grab jewels that have a Life modifier, one critical strike multiplier roll, and one other benefiting modifier.

  • #% increased maximum life
  • +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Cold Skills
  • +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Elemental Skills
  • +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells
  • #% Increased Spell Damage
  • #% Increased Spell Damage while Dual Wielding
  • #% increased Damage
  • #% increased Cold Damage
  • #% increased Projectile Damage
  • #% increased Cast Speed


Main Page / TL;DR

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