[3.29] PhazePlays ARCTIC SALVO — Creeping Frost + Winter Orb

PhazePlays ARCTIC SALVO Build Guide for 3.29!

This icy Elementalist spellcaster combines Creeping Frost andWinter Orb with tons of projectiles!

It’s a fantastic well-rounded leaguestarter, progression is smooth from level 1 all the way to endgame!

• Creeping Frost deals enormous damage for bossing and it's also great for mapping —Gluttony Support provides 360° of coverage
• Long-lasting Winter Orb, plus explosions and huge Area of Effect, makes this an incredibly fast and powerful mapper
• Chill, Freeze, Shock, Stun, and Hinder everything — an unparalleled layer of defense
• Damage intake split 60/40 on Life/ES, with massive recovery on both pools with instant Life/ES Leech and many hits per second
• Mystic Refractor is a fantastic weapon for the build, and means we can easily utilize the new powerful wand corruptions this league
• Level with Creeping Frost right away at Level 12, and Winter Orb at Level 31!

Arctic Salvo Progression:

• Level 1 - 11: Freezing Pulse + Frost Bomb
• Level 12: Creeping Frost replaces Freezing Pulse
• Level 16: Add Cold Snap
• Level 31: Winter Orb replaces Cold Snap

Loot Filter — Mapping Only

• Follow: 3.29_ArcticSalvoMAPS_PZ on my PoE Profile

Mapping

• Refresh Winter Orb every ~8 seconds
• Cast Creeping Frost in between refreshes

Overloaded Intensity Support — after refreshing Winter Orb, ensure that Creeping Frost is your go-to cast for the next ~7 seconds so that Overloaded Intensity stacks don't fall off while mapping

Bossing

1. Maintain Frostbite
2. Spam Creeping Frost in melee range with your cursor on or near the boss
3. Occasionally, briefly channel Winter Orb to maintain Power Charges and for a bit of extra damage

• Cast Focus / Pact of Beidat right before Burst Windows
• If Bonechill Support is linked to Frostblink / Frost Shield, maintain it underneath the boss
• Channel to full Winter Orb stacks before casting Frost Shield to minimize the chance of running out of Energy Shield

Boss Downtime

• Keep casting Creeping Frost during downtime to maintain Overloaded Intensity Support stacks!
• When boss downtime ends, have full stacks of Winter Orb ready
• For bosses with long periods of downtime, avoid activatingRighteous Fire of Arcane Devotion as recovery becomes very tricky, portal out and then re-enter if you need to turn it off

Compendium

Gem Quality Priority

Winter Orb, Creeping Frost, Summon Lightning Golem, Summon Flame Golem, Herald of Ice,Summon Stone Golem of Safeguarding, Frostblink, Summon Stone Golem, Shield Charge

Golems

Summon Flame Golem > Summon Lightning Golem > Summon Stone Golem of Safeguarding > Summon Stone Golem = Summon Ice Golem = Summon Chaos Golem

• Lightning & Flame are always correct
• Stone is nice quality of life, and also great for Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion or no Life Flask
• Stone of Safeguarding is very strong defensively (30% melee damage absorb) and is definitely worth using once you get it
• Ice is nice for extra crit, or to make Elemental Overload more reliable early on. The crit chance is often overkill later on, however
• Chaos is great on leaguestart for the Chaos resistance, and as a small bonus it also scales Creeping Frost chilled ground damage

Pantheons

• Major: Brine King
• Minor: Ralakesh
• Midgame/Lategame: once you get Chill/Freeze immunity, drop Brine King for Lunaris

Mana Issues

Here are some things to look at if you're having Mana issues in the campaign or early/mid maps:

• Ensure Summon Lightning Golem is active
• Tempest Shield + Safeguard + Mystic Bulwark: consider also taking the "10% reduced mana cost of skills" mastery
• Cold Exposure mastery at Glacial Cage for automated mana regen from Mastermind of Discord
• Mental Rapidity on the passive tree
• Low-level Arcane Surge Support linked to Frostblink
• Optional: Inspiration Support on Creeping Frost
• Optional: Quick Recovery wheel
• Optional: Eternal Mana Flask with the Enduring mod (Effect is not removed when Unreserved Mana is Filled)
• Optional: Go Eldritch Battery + Mind Over Matter early

Sustaining Eldritch Battery + Mind Over Matter

• Must have a high Armour/ES Body Armour
• Faith and Steel mastery: 100% increased Armour and ES from Body Armour
• Armour/ES: Helm, Gloves & Boots
• Light Eater mastery: 5% Instant Leech
• Optional: Vaal Discipline and/or Discipline
• Optional: Belt/Body Craft — Regenerate 150 ES per second while a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby (suffix)
• Optional: Avoid running Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion if you're having any ES sustain issues

The ideal amount of Energy Shield is around 67% of your Life pool (or slightly higher) — although it's not required to have that much ES. Avoid letting Winter Orb expire so that Leech is always active

Shock

• With Shaper of Storms, 100% Non-Damaging Ailment Effect will reach the 50% Shock cap. This stat also scales our Chill effect
• Early on, 70% comes from pathing to Divine Judgement and Static Blows

Here are potential sources:

• 20% from the Divine Judgement wheel
• 30% from Ash, Frost and Storm Annoint (Sepia, 2x Crimson)
• 20-30% Amulet craft (suffix)
• 20-30% Boot craft (suffix)
• 10-20% Abyss Jewel Effect of Lightning Ailments

Block

Capping Spell Block (78%) isn’t too bad, but capping Attack Block (75%) can be difficult on the top side of the tree

Spell Block Sources:

• 25-26% — Tempest Shield
• 17% — Safeguard wheel
• Block Mastery: +1% Chance to Block Spell Damage per 5% Chance to Block Attack Damage
• 8% — Mystic Bulwark wheel
• 4% — Sanctuary wheel
• 14% — Arcane Sanctuary wheel
• 14% — Lategame: Conjured Wall and Mage Hunter (with any Suffix notable) on an 8-passive Spell Damage Large Cluster Jewel

Attack Block Sources:

• 38-45% — Shield with high Block Chance Roll
• Shield Mastery: +1% chance to Block Attack Damage per 5% Chance to Block on Equipped Shield
• 7% — Sanctuary wheel
• 22% — The Red Nightmare at Templar + 3x fire resistance tattoos (Tattoo of the Ngamahu Firewalker)
• 8-12% — Rumi's Concoction
• 4-6% — Replica Reckless Defence

Attack Block doesn’t necessarily need to be capped, but around 55-65% is a good number to aim for eventually

Hardcore

This build is Hardcore viable, but there are some things to be aware of:

• Don't channel Winter Orb for too long — being stationary for more than ~1 second is extremely dangerous
• It’s good practice to Frostblink halfway through a Winter Orb channel — but be careful of Frostblink being on cooldown
• Avoid channeling Winter Orb in the middle of a large pack of enemies
• Consider running Arctic Armour
• Run Summon Chaos Golem during early maps for extra Chaos resist
• Summon Stone Golem of Safeguarding is very strong
• Consider Bastion of Elements instead of Shaper of Storms
• Be aware that dangerous enemies sometimes target Golems — and that the Stone Golem can taunt
• Path to Sanctuary earlier and grab the Attack Block mastery
• Consider grabbing the Faith and Steel mastery earlier
• It's probably a good idea to avoid running Betrayal during early progression — especially in Red maps
• Breach: Vruun is dangerous — Kill him one time and then spec in to Dimensional Foothold (Breach Encounters are always Hives)
• Be careful with Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion, or don’t run it until you're confident/geared. Don't hesitate to portal out of a map or boss and re-enter if you need to recover ES or turn it off
• Tank up!

Endgame Crafting

These are expensive crafts only intended for Lategame — do each step in Craft of Exile beforehand to ensure there are no issues! If you encounter any issues or errors here, let me know

Shield Craft

1. Transfer-attuned Spirit Shield item level 84+ with fractured +2 all maximum Resistances or any other desirable suffix
2. Spam Loathing essences until T3+ or T2+ Cold Damage or Spell Damage (Cold is slightly better for explosions, though it's marginal)
3. Get 1 open prefix, annul and pray if needed. The only prefixes we want here are % Block and Spell/Cold Damage
4. Your item should have 2 prefixes and 2 suffixes — exalt an extra suffix if needed (craft a prefix before exalting)
5. Craft Prefixes Cannot be Changed (which fills up Suffixes)
6. Harvest Augment Cold to guarantee +1 Level of Cold Spell Skills
7. Craft Prefixes Cannot be Changed
8. Veiled Chaos (or Veiled Exalt to be safer)
9. Craft % increased Effect of your Curses to block the unveil
10. Unveil Double Damage or Double Damage while Focused — roughly a 70% chance to get one of them. If unlucky, go back to step 7
11. Craft the missing Double Damage mod — done!

Amulet Craft

1. Citrine Amulet item level 75+ with fractured Global Critical Strike Multiplier or all Attributes
2. Alteration spam for +1 Level of all Skill Gems (~2k alts on average)
3. Make it Rare: Regal Orb
4. 1. If you Regal a Prefix: Annul and cross your fingers — 50% chance to lose the +1 all and have to Alteration roll again. Pain
   2. If you Regal a Suffix: safely annul by crafting Prefixes Cannot be Changed and then annul
4. Once you have only +1 all and the fracture on a Rare amulet:
5. 1. Craft: Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers, Prefixes Cannot be Changed, and any tier of Adds x to x Cold Damage to Attacks
5. Harvest Augment Cold for guaranteed +1 to Level of all Cold Skill Gems
6. Confirm 3 things before the next step — read all of them first
7. 1. There should be an open Prefix
   2. We want Prefixes Cannot be Changed to still be on the item
   3. Suffixes must be full (any 2 suffixes + Prefixes Cannot be Changed)
7. Harvest Augment Life for guaranteed maximum Life. Cross your fingers for a good tier, you're stuck with what you get
8. Ensure Prefixes Cannot be Changed is still there, then do either:
9. 1. Veiled Chaos or Veiled Exalt aiming for a good unveil. Repeat if necessary
   2. Harvest Reforge Speed for guaranteed Cast Speed. Repeat if necessary
9. Craft 30% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments — done!

Helmet Craft

Archdemon Crown for Winter Orb: +5 Levels, 30% more Ele damage, Hypothermia Support, Increased Area of Effect Support, +1-3% base Crit

1. Archdemon Crown item level 84+
2. Make it Shaper influence either with a Shaper Exalted Orb or Harvest Influence Swap
3. Spam Essence of Horror until any tier of Hypothermia Support
4. Get 1 open suffix, annul and pray if needed
5. Craft Suffixes Cannot be Changed, Harvest Reforge Critical Strike for guaranteed base spell crit chance, hoping for 2% or 3%
6. Craft Suffixes Cannot be Changed, Harvest Reforge Influence, ~50% chance to hit any tier of Increased Area of Effect Support
7. Isolate Increased Area of Effect Support (no other Prefixes)
8. Craft Suffixes Cannot be Changed and then use a Veiled Exalted Orb, 50/50 chance to win here
9. If the Veiled Exalt is a success, craft +1 to maximum number of Raised Zombies to block, and then unveil for a ~72% chance to unveil +2 AoE or +2 Projectiles
10. Craft the missing +1 AoE or +1 Projectiles, or Life if you prefer

Frequently Asked Questions

• When do I swap from Cold Snap to Winter Orb?
• • Any time after level 31. Make sure to grab the correct supports from Act 3 Library Ice Bite Support, More Duration Support, Infused Channelling Support
• When do I go Crit?
• • Generally easier to stay non-crit with Elemental Overload until somewhere between level 80-90 and then swap to crit
• Act 2 Bandits?
• • Leaguestart: Help Alira — swap later with the Vendor Recipe: 20x Orb of Regret, 1x Onyx Amulet
  • Otherwise: Kill All Bandits
• Is this playable in Solo Self-Found (SSF)?
• • It is, but it shines in trade league with better access to Exceptional gems. In SSF, the Breach Genesis tree is probably the best way to get Mystic Refractor
• How does Pierce work on Creeping Frost?
• • Having at least 1 Pierce will always grant 1 extra hit on bosses, even if your cursor is directly on top of the boss
  • After getting Mystic Refractor, drop Pierce Support
• Why Elementalist?
• • Convergence synergizes very well with Gluttony Support & Pact of Beidat, it has huge AoE, and golems make it a strong Leaguestarter
• What about Occultist, Inquisitor, or Assassin?
• • They're all solid, Elementalist is much stronger at early to mid gear levels though
• What about Power Charge stacking?
• • Can’t really use Tulfall or Void Battery, Willclash locks us out of Archdemon Crown and the Body Armour mastery, defenses tend to be trickier, and corrupted power charge stacking uniques are likely to be quite expensive this league
• How do I kill quest Searching Exarch?
• • Socket your 3 most valuable Golems into one piece of armour, briefly un-equip and then re-equip that item at the start of each ball phase, then resummon them at the end of each ball phase (keybind each)
• What’s needed to drop the Life Flask?
• • A Corrupted Blood immunity jewel, Ralakesh minor Pantheon, plus at least one of: Elemental Life Leech or a Rational Doctrine setup
• What about Creeping Frost in Archdemon Crown?
• • Losing 2 gem levels on Overloaded Intensity Support and Gluttony Support is kind of rough, and the +2% or +3% base crit mod is a bigger benefit to Winter Orb
• Greater Multiple Projectiles Support vs Greater Volley Support?
• • BeforeMystic Refractor, these are interchangeable on Creeping Frost
  • Greater Volley Support has a safer playstyle as you can deal full damage at range, but it has less mapping coverage
  • Greater Multiple Projectiles Support has a slightly more dangerous melee-range playstyle for single target, but has better mapping coverage

• July 18 — Guide Published
• • Changed Arctic Armour to Herald of Ice in the Lategame setup. Scornful Herald Support is also a lategame option but requires a bit of reservation efficiency to fit
• July 19 — Large Cluster: Changed Blanketed Snow to Stormrider
• • Winter Orb: changedPower Charge On Critical Support to Infused Channelling Support in Midgame/Lategame