Velyna's Ice Crash Raider (PoE The Forbidden Sanctum 3.20)

December 9th, 2022, 17:23

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 5.3-5.5k 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 – The build uses a lot of uniques, plus we cannot equip gloves or a shield. 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 the pack.

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.

PoB Imports

The current PoB’s for this build are always available in My Discord or on the page linked below:

Pobs and Skills

For help with this build, the best place to ask is my Stream or the PoE Vault Discord.

The Stages

Leaguestart: Used for fresh leagues, or a start with near-zero currency. Its purpose is to get established farming early maps and buying gear for the next stage. Don’t attempt to push into higher content with this version.

Transition: This is the switch to using Hollow Palm through Replica Perfect Form. In addition, you will want Astramentis and ideally Garukhan's Flight altought these can be pricy at first. There are some 1c uniques in the PoB that give a lot of power for the price as well. Try to get a Frostbite ring and Cyclopean Coil ASAP but you can probably start this stage without them.

Endgame: We transition into using One With Nothing for Hollow Palm and Briskwrap for chestpiece. Major upgrades here include Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support, Brutal Restraint, Watcher's Eye, cluster jewels, enchants and other awakened gems. Make sure Helm/Boot enchants are correct, and annoint.

God: We’ve hit the endgame and started crafting upgrades for our belt and amulet, plus buying or crafting better rings. Big purchases here are mainly Unnatural Instinct plus a Hatred+Determination watchers. You can also grab an extra Ascend node by using both of the Forbidden Jewels.

Detailed info about gear can be found here:

Gear

Ascend, Bandits and Pantheon

A full explanation of bandit, pantheon and ascend choices can be found here:

Ascendancy, Bandits & Pantheon

Leveling

All of my Leaguestart PoBs contain step by step trees as shown below.

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.

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

You can also check out these handy resources here on the site:

GL out there, Exile!