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PoE 2 Build

[0.5] 100% Crit Comet Disciple of Varashta

Sorceress

Disciple of Varashta

Starter

End Game

0.5 RotA

Creator

By PaintMasterPoE

Updated on Jun 16, 2026

Jun 16, 2026

Build Overview

Update for 0.5 (Jun 13)

Change Deliberation to Trickster's Shard for Frostbolt

This is basically variation of my Cold Chronomancer

Useful links

Low Budget Gear Crafting Guide
Making currency as New Player plus general recommendations and tips

Upsides and downsides of Disciple of Varashta over Chrono

Ability to use Staff with Focus, simply meaning Varashta will have slightly more damage
Quick ES Recharge Start (~2 sec), and huge ES Recharge Rate thanks to Waveshaper
Ability to reach near 100% Crit Chance with Effigy of Cruelty while having over 500% Crit Damage
In campaign all non-Djinn passives are between useless and very weak, so Chrono is better early game
Harder to sustain Mana on single target, while it's good enough because boss fights won't last long

Quest Rewards:

Venom Draught: Stun Threshold
Halls of the Dead: 5% Fire/Lightning/Cold Resists
Qimah: 15% ES, if needed 5% Resists
Rakiata's Lesson: 12% Faster Recharge or 30% ES, either is good

Strengths and Weaknesses

Ability to use Staff with Focus
Quick ES Recharge start
Decent amount of Armor considering its caster
Huge AoE with Ice Nova in campaign and early mapping
Chill 1-2 button clearing and single target with Frostbolt + Frost Wall at a bit higher budget
Near 100% Crit Chance on low budget with Effigy of Cruelty

Build has many buttons on low budget setup
While build doesn't have good mana sustain on bosses, Mana Remnants and Mana Flask do decent enough job even for Tier 3 Pinnacle Bosses

Build Variants

Leveling

CoC Comet (Frostbolt)

CoC Comet (Baryanic Leylines)

This Leveling tab has leveling tree, which is different from Early Mapping tree

LEVELING:

With first Uncut Skill Gems take Ice Nova and Frost Bomb.
With first Uncut Support Gems take Magnified Area I and Considered Casting or optinally Spell Cascade for Ice Nova.
For Frost Bomb take Magnified Area I and Potent Exposure or Short Fuse I
Then get Frost Darts whenever you can, with Multishot I, Considered Casting and later Concentrated Area.
Also get Flame Wall for Frost Darts. For Flame Wall use Prolonged Duration I and Spell Cascade.
Optionally: get Orb of Storms to get Lightning Infusion for Flame Wall, and just as another spell that sit there and does some damage.
Then get Snap with Considered Casting, Harmonic Remnants I, later Cooldown Recovery I. Snap generate infusions used on mobs with ailments, allowing to have high uptime of Cold Infused Ice Nova.
Then get Elemental Weakness.
Once you unlock Comet, use it instead of Frost Darts on single target, can also drop Flame Wall and Orb of Storms.
Highly recommend having Fire Extra Damage on Staff, so Comet will ignite consistently so you can use Snap to get Fire Infusion for Comet and repeat that cycle.
Later use Eye of Winter instead of Frost Darts
For Spirit Skills:
- Arctic Armour with Frost Nexus, Encroaching Ground and later Persistent Ground III.
- Siphon Elements with Harmonic Remnants II and Remnant Potency I.
- Once at 100 Spirit, can try Cast on Elemental Ailment with Comet, i'm yet to try it early in campaign.

Equipment

Leveling

CoC Comet (Frostbolt)

CoC Comet (Baryanic Leylines)

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

+11

Main Hand

Staff: +# to All/Cold Spells, %Extra Lightning/Fire/Cold Damage, %Spell Damage, %Crit Chance to Spells, %Cast Speed, %Crit Spell Damage.
Focus: Effigy of Cruelty, i underestimated how strong it is.

Weapon set 2

Chiming Staff with +# to All Spells to use Sigil of Power.
How to get it cheap:
- Buy Chiming Staff with Level 19+ , make it Rare, use Perfect Essence of Sorcery to get +5 to All Spells, done.

Armor

Helmet/Gloves/Boots: ES, Mana, Resists, Int. For Boots also Movespeed.
Body Armor: Waveshaper should be really good option for this build.

Jewellery

Rings: Resists, Mana, Int, Mana Regen. Can be Dex or Str too, you need a bit.
Belt: Resists, Mana, Str if needed. Some Armor on belt is decent too but not important.
Amulet: +# to All Spells, %ES, ES, Mana, Cast Speed, Mana Regen, Attributes or Resists if needed.
Amulet Instil: Aspiring Genius to get Arcane Surge for more Mana Regeneration.

Jewels

IMPORTANT: For better Mana sustain during Maps, highly recommend having Jewels with 1-2% Mana on Kill, 3-4% in total seems good enough.
For other Jewel mods: Crit Damage bonus, Spell Crit Chance, Spell Damage, Cold Damage, Triggered Spell Damage, Meta Skills gain Energy, Increased Energy Shield, Elemental Damage and couple less useful mods.

Charms

Thawing Charm against Freeze, or Nascent Hope
Forsaken Bangle against Chaos Damage

Skill Gems

Leveling

CoC Comet (Frostbolt)

CoC Comet (Baryanic Leylines)

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 25

Dex 20

Int 80

Ice Nova

Frost Bomb

Frost Darts

Flame Wall

Snap

Orb of Storms

Elemental Weakness

Comet

Arctic Armour

Siphon Elements

Eye of Winter

Gem Priority

+25

Notes:

For Comet if you find Spell Echo too slow, try Rapid Casting II instead
Replace Frost Darts with Eye of Winter, manually casted Comet might not be needed
A bit later try using Cast on Elemental Ailment with Comet when you get 100 base spirit
You might get less infusions without Siphon Elements, but Snap does really good job spawning lots of infusions if used on frozen mob packs
Orb of Storms is optional while it adds more damage for Eye of Winter just by itself, but also for Rising Tempest support.

Passive Tree

Leveling

CoC Comet (Frostbolt)

CoC Comet (Baryanic Leylines)

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Early you take Spell/Cold Damage, Crit stuff closer to end of campaign.
ES nodes once you get decent amount of ES from gear, lets say 100-150es helmet/boots/gloves, and 350-400 es body armor

Quest Rewards

Check which quests you’ve completed on your character

Clearfell — Beira of the Rotten Pack

+10% to Cold Resistance

Hunting Grounds — The Crowbell

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Freythorn — The King in the Mists

+30 to Spirit

Ogham Farmlands — Una's Hut

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Ogham Manor — Candlemass, the Living Rite

+20 to maximum Life

Keth — Kabala, Constrictor Queen

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Valley of the Titans — Medallion

30% increased Charm Charges gained

+1 Charm Slot

Deshar — Final Letter

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Spires of Deshar — Sisters of Garukhan

+10% to Lightning Resistance

Jungle Ruins — Mighty Silverfist

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Venom Crypts — Venom Draught

25% increased Stun Threshold

Jiquani's Machinarium — Blackjaw, the Remnant

+10% to Fire Resistance

The Azak Bog — Ignagduk, the Bog Witch

+30 to Spirit

The Molten Vault — The Molten Vault

Reforging Bench

Aggorat — Blood Sacrifice

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Journey's End — Captain Hartlin

Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Skill Gem(Lv 13)

Delirium Drop

Eye of Hinekora — Navali's Rest

5% increased Maximum Mana

Halls of the Dead — Yama The White

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Halls of the Dead — Tawhoa's Test

+5% to Lightning Resistance

Abandoned Prison — Goddess of Justice

30% increased Mana Recovery from Flasks

Halls of the Dead — Tasalio's Test

+5% to Cold Resistance

Halls of the Dead — Ngamahu's Test

+5% to Fire Resistance

Halls of the Dead — Tribal Medicine

30% increased Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield

Wolvenhold — Oswin, the Dread Warden

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Khari Crossing — Akthi and Anundr

Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Khari Crossing — Molten Shrine

5% increased Maximum Life

Qimah — Tabana's Pillar

+5% to all Elemental Resistances

Kriar Village — Lythara, the Wayward Spear

+40 to Spirit

Howling Caves — The Abominable Yeti

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

How it Plays

Clearing:

Early you use Frost Bomb that generate Cold Infusion for Ice Nova
Then once you unlock Snap, use it on frozen mobs to generate multiple Cold Infusions and have high uptime of Cold Infused Ice Nova
Keep Frost Bomb as it applies exposure
In maps you simply use Ice Nova with Snap, rarely Frost Bomb, Frost Wall or Eye of Winter if you want to.

Single target:

Early campaign you use Frost Darts with Flame Wall
A bit later you add Elemental Weakness to cast before Frost Darts
Close to end of campaign change Frost Darts to Eye of Winter
CoA Comet: Sigil of Power, Elemental Weakness, Frost Bomb, then use Flame Wall and use Eye of Winter on cooldown with Ice Nova inbetween
Self-Cast Comet: Sigil of Power, Elemental Weakness, Frost Bomb, then use Comet on cooldown, don't use Snap if boss frozen.

Frostbolt setup:

Spam Frostbolt when clearing, sometimes Frost Wall when see rares or big packs
On boss: Sigil of Power, Elemental Weakness, Frost Bomb, then Frost Wall and Frostbolt

Changelog

Dec 12, 2025: Build created
Dec 13, 2025: Updated leveling slightly, Comet with Snap is really good for single target.
Dec 16, 2025: Added Frostbolt setup.
May 22, 2026: Early update for 0.5
Jun 6, 2026: Fully updated for 0.5