Velyna's Ice Crash Raider (PoE Trial of the Ancestors 3.22)

September 23rd, 2023, 20:46

Introduction

This hard-hitting melee Raider stacks Dexterity to scale damage using Hollow Palm Technique. We gain access to this keystone through Replica Perfect Form in the early game, and One With Nothing for the final version. With enough DPS for all bosses and several layers of defense, this build can carry you from leaguestart through endgame!

Below is a video guide I made for Youtube. This is a good place to start and goes over gearing as well as Pros/Cons. The PoB’s and guide may be more current so make sure to check!

Overview

Pros

✔️ Easy leaguestart and scaling – Just leaguestart as normal melee using the provided PoB, once hitting maps it will take 30-60c for a set of transition gear then you’re cruising. Once you have this initial setup it becomes very easy to scale into endgame content, with crafting required only at the very late stages.

✔️ Strong and Safe Melee – This build is Ailment Immune with 100% Spell Suppression, Phasing, Fortify, Endurance Charges and 15k+ Armour and Evasion. We also freeze almost everything, including many bosses. The life pool could be higher at around 5k but overall this is a strong melee option.

✔️ 3 Button Gameplay – All we do is dash-slam-dash, maybe drop a totem sometimes. We need nothing else besides flasks.

Cons

❌ Stat Budget – Hollow Palm will struggle more than other builds with fitting all the required resists into our gear budget since we cannot equip gloves, weapons, or shields. It’s not terribly hard to pack enough on belt/rings but keep resists in mind while shopping for gear.

❌ Chaos/Degens – Related to stat budget, it’s very hard to fit chaos res into the build. Also a small life pool can make degens scary.

How Does it Play?

Ice Crash is an AoE skill centered just in front of our character, meaning we don’t have to aim our attacks at all. With the chance to freeze from Frostbite most mobs will be slowed or stopped while we move through the pack with phasing, dropping a few crashes to finish it off.

Damage and Defensive Scaling

For every 10 Dexterity we gain 14-20 flat physical damage, this is the core of the build. Frostbite curse is also very important because it gives damage and allows us to freeze without critting. Cold Penetration, Elemental Damage With Attacks, Attack Speed and % Cold Damage are all good choices as well.

On the defensive side we have Armour, Evasion, Fortify, Spell Suppression, Ailment Immunity and Reflect Immunity. Freezing enemies is also a large defense layer that people often underestimate. Impale immunity or Corrupted Blood immunity can be obtained on the tree.

Help

For help with this build, the best places to ask are:

My stream https://www.twitch.tv/velyna
Autarkis stream https://www.twitch.tv/autarki
PoE Vault Discord https://discord.gg/q2P5Q9g

PoB Imports

The current PoB’s for this build are always available here:

Pobs and Skills

Gear

The gear page has premade item searches and info about each item in the late-game PoBs.

Gear

Leaguestart

All of my Leaguestart PoBs contain step by step pathing, and you can scroll down on this page to see what skills to use in acts 1-10.

Act 1

Since we don’t have Ice Crash yet, we need an alternate setup that will get us to act 3. I chose Frost Blades since it scales mostly the same way and is available right at the start. Remember to check the gem vendors after quest completions and boss kills, and don’t forget to use all the utility available.

Act 2

New support gems become available after Chamber of Sins and after killing Weaver.

Act 3

Near the end of this act we can start using Ice Crash. Once you have it on a 4link with Fortify consider doing first lab.

You can use Ice Bite Support, Hypothermia Support, or Concentrated Effect Support as alternate DPS links depending what color links you find.

Act 4-10

At this point the gems will stay mostly the same, just work on getting all the correct groupings set up and a 5link for your main skill.

Need Help?

I try to give all the information needed to enjoy the build and succeed, but questions do come up. If you need any help with my builds the best place to go is either My Stream or My Discord

This site also has guides for game mechanics, trading, crafting, and just about anything else, all collected here:

PoE-Vault Gameplay Guide Hub

GL out there, Exile!