[0.4] Pohx's Permafrost SSF Witchhunter

The focus on this build is using Permafrost Bolts to freeze enemies, then making use of Herald of Ice and Zealous Inquisition we can achieve 1 button clear with Explodes.

For Single target we use Freezing Mark. When a target is frozen pop them with Fragmentation Rounds for huge burst.

For Leveling I recommend Tactician if you want a great experience. Supporting Fire is a crazy node that will delete screens of monsters. Later on take Suppressing Fire to help Freeze Build up.

We do use the Weapon Swap feature a lot for this build, so make sure read the section to understand more. Don't worry it's seamless.

Later I like to swap to Witchhunter for Zealous Inquisition and Sorcery Ward

This build will be squishy starting out. However, You can get 4k+ Bubble from Sorcery Ward Protecting you from all sources of damage. It's kinda like Energy Shield

Simply shoot Permafrost Bolts into a pack of monsters. If you don't have enough projectile speed yet you might need to get a bit closer since it's kinda like a shotgun spray.

After 1-2 Hits you should shatter explode the pack triggering Herald of Ice & Zealous Inquisition

For Rares who don't die you can use your Fragmentation Rounds to kill them nearly instantly. This will also trigger your Shard Scavenger to allow you to shoot without any reload for your Permafrost Bolts for about 6 seconds.

On a boss Fight make sure to use your Freezing Mark This will allow you to hit your freeze earlier since it freezes targets primed for freeze (70%)

It will also allow you to get your secondary freeze out on a boss much quicker because after detonating the first Freeze you're going to have Ice Bite II + Freezing Mark (30% Damage as cold) + Shard Scavenger.

This makes it so you're dealing a bonus 60% Damage as cold while shooting infinitly for 6 seconds, allowing you to get the second freeze off on a boss

Later on we throw in Thunderstorm to help trigger Shock + Blazing Critical + Drench + Lightning Exposure

How to get more boss damage?

For players looking to squeeze more boss damage, swap around the ascendancy points.

Drop Zealous Inquisition + Pitiless Killer For Witchbane & No Mercy. This should net you around 30% More boss damage and help you Freeze easier.

Campaign Rewards

Act 2 - Titans Valley - Life Flask Recovery

Act 3 Venom Draught - Stun or Ailment, I took stun

Act 4 Tattoo's I went with Elemental Resistance over attributes but both are fine, although I prefer resistance.

Interlude - Pillars - I started with + Elemental res then swapped over to movement speed once I was res capped

Weapon Swap Tech.

Green Line = Fragmentation Rounds

Red Line = Permafrost Bolts

1. First On your crossbow at the top Right Click near the lock icon (should be in the top left) This will lock your crossbow to both your weapon sets so you can weapon swap with a singular weapon
2. Select your Permafrost Bolts from the skill list and set it to Weapon 1 (This will make it the red line on your skill tree for weapon swap points
3. Select your Fragmentation Rounds and set them to weapon 2 (This will make it the green line on your skill tree for weapon swap points
4. (Optional) To fire with left and right click you can now set your Permafrost Bolts to left click, load it, then swap to Crossbow Shot. Do the same thing on right click with Fragmentation RoundsThis will allow you to bypass the extra keybind needed for switching ammo types.

How do you Fit all the Spirit Gems in?

To confirm you will ALWAYS have Berserk + Shard Scavenger on your Weapon 2 with Fragmentation Rounds. This is so you don't have to worry about Degen from Berserk. Shard Scavenger doesn't need to be with Permafrost Bolts since it only works on consuming ailments. We consume Freeze with Fragmentation Rounds to allow for unlimited shooting for 6 seconds with Permafrost Bolts while saving Spirit.

For the Sorc Ward Swap you will need a lot of spirit to fit in Wind Dancer. Look at my amulet in the swap section to see how much you need. Consider getting it on other sources if you have access, like Helmet Corruptions etc

Setting up Sorcery Ward

Note I would recommend waiting till 80's or so before doing this transition, Experienced players can definitely get by a bit sooner. As I played in SSF It took me till 90 to craft the gear for the swap.

Sorcery Ward is an incredibly strong defensive layer that protects against Fire, Ice, Lightning, Physical & Chaos Damage. It doesn't prevent DEGEN but that's okay because it means we still get use out of our Ultimate Life Flask.

To set this up I recommend at least around 13K Evasion, you can probably get by with less but this is around when I swapped. Take notice of my gear, Primarily the Body Armour as we now favor Evasion over Life.

We're also going to respec part of the passive tree to prioritize Evasion nodes as these essentially work as "Life Nodes" From PoE1.

One of the tricky things is managing the spirit costs. You want an amulet similar to mine to fit in Wind Dancer If you are unable to acquire the spirit you could try dropping Herald of Ice but I'm not too sure how well the clear will feel.

This setup does also require a lot of attributes since you need high Dexterity for Wind Dancer High Strength for Berserk + Eternal Rage and INT for Herald of Ice

The Tradeoff is turning your 2.5k Hp into 2k HP and 4k+ Sorc Ward. You can scale this much higher than I have and combined with you freezing everything makes you feel much much tankier.

What Jewels am I looking for?

Heart of the Well Diamond is an amazing Jewel, Try finding one with 15% Damage as cold.

Other good stats on rare jewels would be

• Damage with Crossbows
• Cold Penetration
• Cold Damage / Elemental Damage
• Attack Speed
• % Mana / Life on Kill
• Projectile Speed / Damage
• Increased Damage against rare/unique monsters
• %Evasion

What Type of Crossbow am I looking for?

I like crafting on Gemini Crossbow for the +1 bolt. If you wanna Minax craft a Desolate Crossbow for weapon swap for Fragmentation Rounds but using a Gemini Crossbow for both works just fine. It's ideal to have a Phys based Crossbow since Permafrost Bolts & Fragmentation Rounds both convert Phys --> Cold. An Ideal crossbow would look something like this

• Prefix 140% Increased Physical Damage, Usually via Perfect Trans/Aug or lucky Desecration
• Prefix 70% Phys + Acc | can get flat Cold Damage here instead OR 30% Phys as cold via Ice Essence
• Prefix 35-59 Flat Physical Damage, Usually via Essence of Abrasian

• Suffix +5 or Higher to Projectile Skills. Via Perfect essence of Battle
• Suffix 17%+ Attack speed via Trans/Aug or Desecration
• Suffix 20% Chance to gain Onslaught on Kill, via Perfect essence of Haste

What are good Uniques in Endgame?

Sine Aequo - Best Gloves, amazing for Freeze and Shatter Detonation via Fragmentation Rounds

Heatshiver - Personal Favorite for mapping the Damage as fire works really well

Constricting Command - BIS helmet overall for the build, tons of damage

Hyrri's Ire - Best for Damage but hard to fit in because of attribute / no res

The Pandemonius Good but not sure it's worth it compared to high spirit amulet

Yoke of Suffering Probably BIS amulet but would have to drop Eternal Rage so unsure

Headhunter Works on any build

Heatshiver Decent alternative to Constricting if in SSF

What Anoints?

I'd Recommend Climate Change should be the best. Lots of cheaper alternatives like Personal Touch for starting amulets