Cold Snap Vortex Occultist PoB, Passive Skill Tree & Gem Links

Out Of Date

March 5th, 2023, 16:11

IMPORTANT PoB NOTES

The PoB community fork created by Localidentity is the only version being kept up to date, so make sure you have the correct version: PoB Community Fork.

END GAME PoB & PASSIVE SKILL TREE

This build is extremely straightforward tree-wise. Budget-friendly versions include 0 Cluster Jewels, due to how volatile they are in terms of crafting difficulty and due to how expensive they can be.

Here is the Cold Snap Vortex Occultist Low Budget PoB and for a quick glance over the finished skill tree for this version, check out this link.

Here is the Cold Snap Vortex Occultist High Budget PoB, and for a quick glance over the finished skill tree for this version, check out this link.

Once the skill-tree is finished, just focus entire on more jewel sockets or cluster jewels if you can afford it.

LEVELING PROGRESSION

In the main page of this build guide you can see the detailed leveling progression up to level 38.

MASTERIES

A lot of the masteries available comes down to a matter of personal preference but some are more or less mandatory.

Life Mastery: “+50 to maximum life” is crucial as you’re leveling the build before you go in to CI to help get as much life as possible
Life Mastery: “10% increased maximum life & 10% reduced life recovery rate” serves the same purpose as the 50 flat HP

Once you go CI the mastery nodes you’ll will be the following:

Energy Shield Mastery: “Regenerate 2% of Energy Shield per second” will help you sustain the ES vs DoT’s
Attributes Mastery: “5% increased attributes” helps reach both Dexterity & Strength but also provides intelligence which boosts your ES as well as damage output
Cold Mastery: “Cold Exposure you inflict applies an extra -5% to cold resistance” very generic extra resistance lowering effect on enemies
Elemental Mastery: “+15% to all elemental resistances” this helps gearing a lot on the low budget, if gear covers you should save this skill-point
Energy Shield Mastery: “Gain 3% of maximum mana as extra maximum energy shield” generic ES boosting mastery node based of your mana pool
Cold Mastery: “Curses on enemies in your chilling areas have 15% increased effect” damage increasing effect as enemies should always be within your chilling areas
Caster Mastery: “1% increased spell damage per 16 intelligence” we don’t stack a lot of intelligence but since we are going CI we are naturally pathing through a lot on top of the Attribute Mastery cluster we’ll be picking up making this a worthwhile investment for straight up damage increase

AMULET ANOINTMENT

There are 2 options for optimal performance to anoint with this build:

Cheap Node: Divine Judgement, which requires 1x Sepia Oil, 1x Teal Oil & 1x Black Oil

Expensive Node: Tranquility, which requires 1x Azure Oil & 2x Golden Oil.

END GAME GEM LINKS

6-Link Vortex

These links are strictly designed to increase the Damage over Time component of the skill in the best way possible:

3-Link Trigger

This set-up is best utilized with a Rare weapon bench-crafted with the modifier: “Trigger socketed spell when you use a skill” to automate all 3 spells, which are all designed to maximize your damage output:

3-Link CWDT & Aura

We will be using a generic CWDT set-up which can be tweaked to whatever personal preference you have. I’ve always been a fan of using Immortal Call to further mitigate damage when playing. The aura is there to make us deal more damage over time. Make sure the CWDT is low level, such as level 3, with a maximum of level 5 Immortal Call.

Quick note here is that you don’t have to link the aura to the CWDT – Immortal Call set-up, so a 2-Link / 1-Socket is enough, but it’s also fine to have a 3-Link here.

3-Link / 1-Socket Mobility & Aura

This set-up requires you to not have a 4-link; if you do have an item 4-linked, make sure you use Orb of Fusing until you get 3-Link / 1-Socket so that the aura is not linked to the Faster Casting, as it will increase the Mana reserved from that aura. The aura should be the Vaal version of Discipline to allow for a “panic” button to get your Energy Shield back up.

3-Link

1-Socket

Vaal Discipline

4-Link Mobility

This set-up is strictly designed to make clearing faster, especially when you enable the Vaal Cold Snap. Do note that you’ll want the Arcane Surge to be as high as possible, as long as it will provide the extra damage by using Phase Run once, and not require you to cast it multiple times before you gain the Arcane Surge buff. Normally this would be level 5-6, but do check the Mana cost in-game when running this set-up:

4-Link Vaal Cold Snap

The Vaal Cold Snap is your “I want to clear fast” button which also generates Frenzy Charges, which further increases your clear speed as well as damage output. The supports used are ultimately designed to increase the damage of your Vortex via Bonechill, which increases the Cold Damage enemies take based of the Chill effect caused by the Cold Snap:

Main Page / TL;DR