Blood Mage Frostbolt Comet Endgame Build

Introduction

The Frostbolt Comet Blood Mage Witch utilizes an arsenal of Cold Spells to optimize gameplay for speed-farming maps and killing pinnacle bosses. To clear maps, Ice Nova freezes enemies to trigger a barrage of Frostbolt projectiles from Cast on Freeze. Against bosses, Frost Wall rapidly triggers Comet from Cast on Critical to rain down for devastating damage.

This build guide assumes you have reached endgame maps around Level 65. If you have not yet completed the campaign, follow the Frostbolt Cold Snap Leveling Build Guide.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Build Mechanics

Infinite “Mana”

Mana is a primary concern for the typical spellcaster. The Mana costs of Skills continue to grow as you increase skill gem levels, and most support gems multiply costs even further. To achieve enough Mana sustain for these high costs, a considerable investment must be made to gain Maximum Mana and Mana Regen using Skill Points and gear affixes.

The Blood Mage Ascendance node, Vitality Siphon, enables Spell damage to be leeched as Life to provide an endless source of Life sustain. This enables the Blood Mage to utilize Blood Magic, removing mana entirely to only pay skill costs with Life.

Life leech by default occurs over 1 second, but Atziri’s Acuity grants instant leech from Critical Hits. This effect is crucial for keeping your Life pool full, especially during boss fights. Without these gloves, your Life pool will not recover fast enough to keep up with the rate of triggered spells, causing you to lose casts.

Life is also recovered by Life Remnants, granted by Sanguimancy. These life globes spawn primarily from killing enemies and can overflow Maximum Life to double the normal amount. Continue to absorb Life Remnants while clearing groups of enemies to become nearly invincible.

Snakepit

The unique ring, Snakepit, is highly recommended as your first expensive purchase. Equip Snakepit in the left ring slot to remove the piercing effect from Frostbolt and cause the projectiles to fork. Frostbolt fires three projectiles per cast with Scattershot. Each of the projectiles fired split into two projectiles after hitting the first enemy and then explode on the second enemy. Against groups of enemies, Frostbolt explosions can shotgun targets to hit them multiple times.

Comet is triggered often from Cast on Critical due to the high amount Frostbolt explosions to finish off any surviving enemies. During boss fights, Frost Wall provides targets for Frostbolt to split and explode on.

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Skill Rotation

Follow the basic skill rotation below to progress through the campaign and clear groups of enemies in maps:

1. Cast Ice Nova to freeze enemies and trigger Frostbolt from Cast on Freeze. Ideally, you want to deal enough damage to freeze enemies in one cast, as spamming Ice Nova can rapidly deplete your Life pool.
2. If additional damage is needed against tough elites, cast Frost Wall on top of them for additional explosions.
3. Cast Cold Snap to finish off any surviving enemies that are frozen.

Execute the steps below to optimize damage against bosses:

1. Cast Sigil of Power (Weapon Set 2) to buff damage.
2. Cast Hypothermia (Weapon Set 1) to reduce the Cold Resistance of the boss. Hypothermia can be pre-cast before a boss spawns if supported by Cursed Ground.
3. Cast Frost Bomb to apply Cold Exposure.
4. Cast Frost Wall on top of the boss. Larger bosses automatically break Ice Crystals to trigger Comet from Cast on Freeze. If a boss doesn’t break any Ice Crystals, cast wait for Frost Bomb to explode or cast Ice Nova. Once Comets start to land, repeat casts of Frost Wall to continue the chain reaction.

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Video Guide

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Skill and Support Gems

The Frostbolt Comet Blood Mage utilizes the following Skill Gems and Support Gems, listed in order of socket priority.

Skill Gems	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3	Support Gem 4	Support Gem 5
Ice Nova	Astral Projection	Ambush	Considered Casting	Arcane Tempo	Mobility
Frost Wall	Spell Cascade	Pinpoint Critical	Ambrosia	Magnified Effect	Cold Mastery
Cold Snap	Elemental Focus	Inevitable Critical	–	–	–
Frost Bomb	Strip Away	–	–	–	–
Hypothermia	Cursed Ground	Ritualistic Curse	Heightened Curse	–	–
Sigil of Power	Persistence	–	–	–	–

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Spirit Gems

The Spirit Gem setup requires 120 total Spirit to activate Cast on Freeze and Blink. Another 10 additional Spirit is optional to slot Magnetism. Defeat The King in the Mists (Act 1, Normal Difficulty) and Ignagduk (Act 3, Normal and Cruel Difficulty) for 100 base Spirit. Obtain the remaining 20-30 Spirit from your Amulet.

While clearing maps, activate Cast on Freeze to trigger Frostbolt and Blink to traverse quickly.

Against bosses, deactivate Cast on Freeze and Blink to instead activate Cast on Critical to trigger Comet. Overwhelming Presence is optional to reduce enemy ailment threshold, resulting in more energy generation for Cast on Critical. You may need to use a lower-level Skill Gem for Overwhelming Presence due to its high Strength requirement.

Inspiration is listed twice because it is swapped between Cast on Freeze for the mapping setup and Cast on Critical for the bossing setup.

The persistent buff swaps for the mapping and bossing setups can be automated when weapon sets if you have a Chiming Staff with high-damage affixes. To utilize this method, set Cast on Freeze and Blink to weapon set 1 and then set Cast on Critical and Overwhelming Presence to weapon set 2. This setup is not ideal for damage output once you have a more powerful Wand and Rathpith Globe combination.

Skill Gems	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3	Support Gem 4	Support Gem 5
Life Remnants	Dissipate	Magnetism	–	–	–
Cast on Freeze (Mapping Setup)	Frostbolt	Scattershot	Inspiration	Deliberation	Acceleration
Blink (Mapping Setup)	Ingenuity	–	–	–	–
Cast on Critical (Bossing Setup)	Comet	Concentrated Effect	Inspiration	Impetus	Leverage
Overwhelming Presence (Bossing Setup)	–	–	–	–	–

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Ascendancy

Blood Mage is the recommended Ascendancy for the Frostbolt Comet Witch. The chosen Ascendancy can be switched within the base class by repeating your highest trial completion.

Allocate the Ascendancy nodes for Blood Mage in the following order:

1. Sanguimancy and Vitality Siphon — These nodes need to be allocated together to be able to sustain the Life costs of Skills with Spell Leech.
2. Grasping Wounds — The delayed damage taken drastically improves survivability against getting one-shot by allowing you time to recover Life.
3. Crimson Power — Energy Shield granted by your Body Armor also provides Maximum Life, which can amount to 1000+. The Maximum Life also scales damage output when Rathpith Globe is equipped.

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Passive Skill Tree

In the Passive Skill Tree, use attribute nodes to fulfill any Intelligence and Dexterity requirements, and then allocate the rest as Strength for Maximum Life.

The following mapping setup is the default version of the build:

The pinnacle boss setup reallocates Area of Effect and Projectile Speed nodes to Critical Damage Bonus and Critical Hit Chance for maximum single-target damage output:

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Gear

The preferred gear for the Frostbolt Comet Blood Mage is listed below with affixes and socketables ranked in order of importance. Prioritize Rare Items with the correct base stats and beneficial explicit affixes. Recommended Unique Items are listed below the Rare Item table.

Rare Items

Equipment Slot and Base Stats	Prefixes	Suffixes	Sockets
Wand	1. All Extra Damage types with a priority on Cold 4. Spell Damage 5. Cold Damage	1. Level of all Cold Spell Skills 2. Critical Spell Damage Bonus 3. Critical Hit Chance for Spells	1. Greater Glacial Rune
Focus (replaced by Rathpith Globe)	4. Spell Damage 5. Cold Damage 6. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield	1. Level of all Spell Skills 2. Critical Spell Damage Bonus 3. Critical Hit Chance for Spells	1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. Soul Core of Jiquani
Helmet — Energy Shield	1. Maximum Life 3. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield	2. Critical Hit Chance 2. Resistances 2. Strength or Intelligence	1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. Soul Core of Jiquani
Body Armor — Energy Shield	1. Maximum and Increased Energy Shield (prioritize the highest total Energy Shield) 2. Maximum Life	2. Resistances 3. Strength or Intelligence	2. Greater Iron Rune
Gloves — Energy Shield (replaced by Atziri’s Acuity)	1. Maximum Life 3. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield	1. Critical Damage Bonus 2. Resistances 3. Strength or Intelligence	1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. Soul Core of Zalatl
Boots — Energy Shield	1. Movement Speed 1. Maximum Life 3. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield	2. Resistances 3. Strength or Intelligence	1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. Soul Core of Zalatl
Amulet	1. Spirit (20-30) 2. Maximum Life 2. Percent Increased Maximum Life 4. Maximum Energy Shield	2. Level of all Spell Skills 3. Resistances 4. Strength or Intelligence	Anointments: 1. Cooked 2. Split Shot
Rings (left slot replaced by Snakepit)	1. Maximum Life 3. Cold Damage 3. Rarity of Items Found	2. Resistances 3. Attributes	–
Belt — Rawhide or Heavy	1. Maximum Life 3. Flask Life Recovery Rate 4. Charm Effect Duration	2. Resistances 3. Attributes 4. Stun Threshold	–

Unique Items

The following Unique Items are recommended for the Frostbolt Comet Blood Mage:

• Atziri’s Acuity is necessary to instantly leech Life from Critical Hits to sustain rapidly triggering Spells, especially during boss fights. Without the instant leech, Life can become completely drained, causing you to lose triggers and become vulnerable to death. This is a cheap unique item that should be obtainable in a starter setup.
• Snakepit enables Frostbolt to fork and then explode when equipped in the left ring slot. This build can still be played without Snakepit, allowing Frostbolt projectiles to pierce through all enemies instead.
• Rathpith Globe provide a massive damage boost that scales by stacking Maximum Life.

Jewels

The beneficial affixes for Jewels are listed below, ranked in order of importance. Prioritize Rare Jewels with two prefixes and two suffixes.

• Prefixes
  1. Spell Damage
  2. Triggered Spell Damage
  3. Increased Energy Shield
  4. Area of Effect
• Suffixes
  1. Critical Damage Bonus
  1. Critical Strike Chance or Critical Strike Chance for Spells
  2. Cast Speed

Campaign Buffs

Quest rewards during the campaign offer a selection of buffs to your character. Choose the following buffs for the build:

• Valley of the Titans Altar
  1. 30% increased Charm Charges gained
  2. 15% increased Life Recovery from Flasks
• Venom Draught
  1. 30% increased Elemental Ailment Threshold
  2. 10% Chaos Resistance

For more details, check the guide on Campaign Difficulties and Permanent Stat Bonuses.

Flasks and Charms

Prioritize the following Flasks and Charms:

• Health Flask
  • Prefix: Increased Life Recovered, Removes Life Recovered From Mana when used
  • Suffix: Increased Charges
• Mana Flask
  • Prefix: any
  • Suffix: Increased Charges
• Charm:
  1. Thawing Charm
  2. Stone Charm
  3. Grounding Charm

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Changelog

May 24th, 2025: Guide created for Path of Exile II, Early Access