Build Info & Playstyle

Cold Dot Elementalist League Starter Build Info & Playstyle

There may be a point where you don't have enough Energy Shield to cast Hatred, or you won't have the additional Curse to cast Elemental Weakness yet. Just ignore them and progress without until you get further through the guide.

The Eye of Malice is a great tool to further increase your damage. This Helmet requires you to be nearby enemies, which you always are because of the need to drop a Vortex on Bosses. When nearby, Eye of Malice increases their Resistances, which may be confusing until you realize that it increases negative resistances. If I increase your debt that's a bad thing for you, and if I increase a monsters negative resistances, that's a bad thing for them too! We also use this for it's Exposure inflicting modifier which allows us to change our Glove Implicit.

Cold DoT Elementalist is built around the concept of stacking DoTs. This build utilizes many different abilities which all stack together. It's important to use each ability on Bosses for optimal damage, keeping in mind that if you spam Creeping Frost it does not stack the DoT, but if you then cast a different ability like Vortex, Cold Snap and Vaal Cold Snap, those will all stack together since they're different sources of DoT.

To assist in Physical Mitigation this build utilizes a concept called Damage Shifting. This simply means that when using Cloak of Flame or Lightning Coil, a portion of the Physical Damage you take is instead taken as Elemental Damage which your Resistances then reduce. This is a great way to mitigate tons of Physical Damage very easily since every build will have at least 75% capped Resistances at all times.

The Legacy of Fury Boots provide the build with a source of additional pack clear, which makes using Vaal Cold Snap feel great when you Shield Charge through the map. These Boots also provide a source of Scorch, which is an alternate Ailment that shreds Resistances even more making it pair very well with Eye of Malice.

Cold Snap Causes an expanding area of Cold DoT at target location. If enemies die within it's Area of Effect it generates Frenzy Charges. Consume Frenzy Charges to bypass it's cooldown if you need, but make sure to not use all your Frenzy Charges up or you miss out on their 4% damage buff for each one you have.

As an Elementalist you have many different Ailments you're inflicting on enemies. One of many ways we increase our damage is through increasing the effect of these Ailments on enemies. Shock, Scorch, and Chill all have their effects boosted through the Passive Tree, your Anoint of Ash, Frost and Storm, through the Craft on your Amulet and the modifier on your Legacy of Fury.

Eldritch Battery makes your Energy Shield a resource to spend alongside Mana. This is extremely helpful since it always recharges and allows you to no longer need a Mana Flask. There may be a point where you don't have enough Energy Shield to cast Hatred, or you won't have the additional Curse to cast Elemental Weakness yet. Just ignore them and progress without until you get further through the guide.

This build obtains near Ailment immunity through the Pantheon system and a 60% reduced effect of Shock Ring Craft combined with 40% reduced effect of Shock and Chill Crafted onto your Gloves. Simply take the Brine King Pantheon and upgrade it for 50% reduced effect of Chill and it's Immunity to Freeze.

Capping your Spell Suppression at 100% is mandatory to mitigate Spell Damage. Do this by obtaining high tier rolls on your Body Armour, Gloves, Boots and later your Shield. This ensures you always take 50% of the damage a Spell would normally deal.

You're done with the Campaign and are ready to take on Path of Exile's Endgame. Priority 1 is capping your Elemental Resistances (75%) and having sufficient Attributes to continue leveling your Skill Gems. Use Essences you have gathered on any item that is not Magic or Rare already. Items with an open modifier slot can be crafted on. Head to the Crafting Bench and craft the Resistances you need and Life wherever else possible.

Copy and Paste everything RED: "non|s ac|gen|% ma|s rec|withe|re he|poss|r el" into the search bar of your Stash tab after rolling all of your Maps for your session. This highlights ALL maps that need to be re-rolled because of the bad modifiers bellow. Press Space + Shift while using Awakened Trade Macro to Save your Regexes and name them for future use and use poe.re to create your own Regexes. Otherwise, avoid the following modifiers:

While mapping, cast Creeping Frost on packs in front of you, Cold Snap in the back of dense packs to generate Frenzy Charges and keep Vortex on LMB letting it clear what it can. When Vaal Cold Snap is full use your Movement Ability to put yourself in the middle of a pack of monsters and activate it, moving from pack to pack while it's active to quickly clear.

While bossing on your Cold DoT Elementalist Build, use each of your damaging abilities on the boss once and then cast your Elemental Weakness and Hatred. If the boss is still not dead, repeat casting Creeping Frost and Vortex, while maintaining Cold Snap (but not spamming it since it removes a Frenzy Charges if you don't wait for it's cool down.) Later on in the build you'll obtain a pair of boots that lays Scorched Ground underneath you while moving, simply walk on top of a boss to enable a massive Resistance shredding debuff, or move near them if using Legacy of Fury.

As a well-rounded character you should focus on the mechanics listed below depending on what level of content your character is currently capable of completing. Clicking the League Mechanics below takes you to either a full Explanation Guide or a detailed Currency Farming Guide based around maximizing your profits from that mechanic or content.