Path of Exile 3.6 Ice Nova Most Popular Build Guide

Ice Nova is a spell that casts an expanding circle of cold damage. In Path of Exile 3.6 Synthesis, Ice Nova has Mana Cost at gem level 1 is now 8 (was 10). Mana Cost at gem level 20 is now 23 (was 31). Now has a cast time of 0.7 seconds (from 0.8). Now deals 18 to 26 Cold damage at gem level 1 (from 19 to 28) and 518 to 762 Cold damage at gem level 20 (from 632 to 930). Now adds 3 to 4 Cold damage against Chilled enemies at gem level 1 (unchanged) and 79 to 116 Cold damage against Chilled enemies at gem level 20 (from 97 to 141). Now has an added damage effectiveness of 120% (from 130%).

[PoE 3.6 Assassin] CCC - "Cospris Cool Crit" - Assassin | Cyclone + Ice Nova Build

This guide revolves around the reworked Cast On Crit Support Gem. The whole idea of this build isn't new and there seem to be a few videos/guides showcasing this build or similar ones out there, but I wasn't able to find any up to date guide to this exact play style. To fill this gap, I decided to write this guide.

The main mechanic of this build is the updated Cast on Crit Support Gem paired with the Cospris Malice Sword. Go check the Wiki Page of CoC and the Sword now in case you are not yet familiar with them. This Guide originally started as GC+IN CoC build. I removed GC almost fully from the guide tho as it simply can't compete with IN only. The base damage and aoe of IN are just way better...
I will explain how CoC + Cospris work in detail because you will need it to calculate your total damage and to know what actually happens.

Pros & Cons;
+ great clear speed
+ can easily shred Shaper and his Guardians
+ boss damage is great as well
+ Turkish survivability
+ freeze and shatter
+ delving is great fun
+ clearing incursion is very easy
+ crit CrIt CRIT CRIIIIT
+ Boom Boom Boom Boom
+ can run reflect maps
+ huge fun, overall a great mapper
+ don't want to play Arc Traps anymore? You don't have to level a new char, just change your Ascendancy Class and tree!
+ great gear curve, even during the end game
+ 6 links are only required to face bosses, t16 maps on 5 links are no problem
- bad league starter
- not HC or SSF viable
- quite expansive
- definitely NOT for beginners

Bandits:
Leave Alira alive or pick 2 Skill points, you can get some nice things with those.

Ascendancy:
in the following order:
1. Unstable Infusion
2. Ambush and Assassinate: 99% Crit Chance on the first hit and last hits as well as Culling Strike...
3. Deadly Infusion: Even more crit chance and multiplier
4. Opportunistic: Nice movement speed, boss damage and basically no reflected damage anymore

Pantheon:
- Soul of Lunaris, as we are cycling into mobs we always have a lot of monsters around us and projectiles are often very dangerous too as they come in your count and not all of them will be evaded/dodged
- Soul of Garukhan, even more, evade chance and movement speed
- Soul of Yugul when running reflect maps

Gems Setup:
Cospri's Malice Setups:

Most Fun: You got GC for the fanciness and FB and IN for damage
Glacial Cascade 21/20 - Ice Nova 21/20 - Frost Bolt21/20

Most Damage: This way you just cast endless FBs that deal damage and create vortexes that deal damage as well... quite FPS heavy from time to time tho
Frost Bolt - Ice Nova 21/20 - Greater Multiple Projectiles 21/20

Most IN Action: If you want IN only for whatever reason^^
Elemental Focus 21/20 - Ice Nova 21/20 - Concentrated Effect 21/20

Life Leech PoE Support Gem: swap out warlords mark for enfeebling. That's actually a more tanky way to get your leech. Hexproof maps aren't a problem anymore, but you should get some mana leech nodes in the tree! Do not use this for boss fights like shaper because you do not leech as much damage as with wm with this setup!
Life Leech Support 21/20 - Ice Nova 21/20 - Frost Bolt 21/20

Body Armor:
Vaal Cyclone 21/20 - Ice Nova 21/20 - Hypothermia 21/20- Cast on Critical Strike 21/20 - Concentrated Effect 21/20 - Cold Penetration 21/20
- (Increased Area of Effect 21/20 for mapping)

- 4-Link: Cast when Damage Taken 1 - Immortal Call 3- Frost bomb - Ancestral Protector
- 3-Link: Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Fortify
- 4-Link: Herald of Ice - Onslaught - Blasphemy - Warlord Mark
- Utility: Blood Rage, Lightning Golem, Vortex, Bonechill Support

Video:
Hydra kill:

T16 Map with some Betrayal action:

Shaper kill:

PoB Link:https://pastebin.com/iypuWQeJ
Skill Tree:www.poeurl.com/cdzQ
Example Link:https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2274245

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[PoE 3.6 Assassin]CheeQu's CoC Ice Nova Build

This guide will teach you how to properly handle a CoC (like Vegan) and how to unleash its full potential. So sit back and enjoy as I breakdown every single detail regarding game mechanics, interactions and Minmaxing in this all-in-one build I made for 3.6.

Offense:
Up to 7m Shaper DPS (~2 sec per phase) • Amazing clearspeed and Movement Speed.

Defense:
~8000 EHP @lvl 90 • Fortify • Perma Blind combined with some Evasion • 42% Less Damage of Enemies through Enfeeble with Curse Effectiveness (also reduces enemies' Accuracy, Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Multiplier) • 80% Elemental Resistances, 25%+ Physical Damage mitigation with Basalt Flask • Perma Chill/ Freeze • 36% Block Chance • 5% Dodge Attacks and Spells • Fast and reliable Life Leech combined with ES Gained on Hit • Life Flask + some Life Regeneration • And our best defense: Everything dies instantly!

Ascendancy:
Unstable Infusion - Deadly Infusion - Opportunistic - Ambush and Assassinate.

Gems Setup:
Body Armour: Cyclone - Cast on Critical - Ice Nova - Increased Critical Strikes - Hypothermia - Elemental Focus or Fortify or Concentrated Effect or Increased Area of Effect.
Cospri's Malice: Frostbolt - Ice Nova - Life Leech.
Shield: Shield Charge or Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Fortify.
Helmet: Blasphemy - Enfeeble - Herald of Ice (replaced with Discipline when we have the Watcher's Eye shown in the gear section) - Phase Run or Decoy Totem or Vaal Righteous Fire or Enlighten.
Gloves: Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 1) - Immortal Call (lvl 1) - Frost Bomb (lvl 10) - Summon Chaos Golem (lvl 3).
Boots: Vortex - Bonechill - Unbound Ailments - Arcane Surge (low lvl).

Bandits:
Help Alira. Kill Oak and Kraityn. From this, we get Critical Strike Multiplier, some Elemental Resistances and Mana Regeneration - all of which are very much needed for this build.

Pantheon:
Major God: Lunaris. Offers useful Physical Damage mitigation and Movement Speed through packs. I also recommend upgrading this god as it offers Dodge and Chance to avoid projectiles.
Solaris is the best defensive option against end-game bosses like Shaper, Elder, Mastermind, Guardians, etc. Definitely upgrade this as well when possible.

Minor God: Gruthkul. More Physical Damage mitigation. Upgrading this god also reduces enemies' Attack Speed when they hit you by 8% (quite a lot!).
Garukhand can be a good alternative for mapping after upgrading it for 6% Movement Speed.
Yugul can also be used against encounters involving Cold Damage such as Elder or Shaper.

PoB Link:https://pastebin.com/e6zZEEr1
Skill Tree:http://tinyurl.com/ybj7qdun
Example Link:https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2285205

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[PoE 3.6 Assassin]Frostbolt Lewd's Cold Hard CoC Build Guide

Benefits of the CoC

- Lots of Balls

- Easy[gameplay] Breezy beautiful, Cover CoC

- Many ways to trigger CoC[Cyclone isn't the only girthy boy]

- EXPLOSIONS, teehee

- Fast Paced

- Never have to break a barrel again

- All Content Viable

- This bad boy can fit so many life gains on hit[Tank out with your CoC out]

- FPS friendly, surprisingly

- Most importantly Aesthetics

Gems Setup:

6L CoC

Cyclone>Cast on Critical Strike Support>Increased Critical Strikes Support>Hypothermia Support>Frostbolt>Ice Nova

Cospri's Malice

Frostbolt>Cold Penetration Support>Ice Nova

Movement

Leap Slam>Fortify>Faster Attacks Support>Increased Critical Strikes Support

Ancestral Protector

This skill gives % more attack speed while you are near it, making for an easy way to hit proc rate cap vs. single target, double as useful if going for Cooldown Recovery options.

Defensive Links

Blasphemy>Warlord's Mark

Herald of Purity>Blind Support

Cast When Damage Taken lvl 1>Immortal Call lvl 3>Increased Duration>Frost Bomb lvl 10

FOR THOSE GOING DUAL WIELD

War Banner

Bandit:

Alira - Feel free to switch to Kill All once you fill out your crit multi-nodes on a tree and have your resists Cap'd through items. The 5 mana regen will hurt but is only a quality of life component.

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Arakaali - Queen of the Great Tangle

Blood Rage + Immortal Call will trigger the 50% increased Recovery Rate of Life from Queen of the Great Tangle. Life Recovery Rate affects not only your leech rate but also affects all sources of Life Recovery such as Life Gain on Hit.

Minor God: Soul of Gruthkul - Erebix, Light's Bane

Reducing Mobs attack speed by 8% is a huge benefit to dodge/evasion based builds as it makes them hit slower which means fewer hits taken in general. Another substantial defensive boost.

OR

Minor God: Soul of Garukhan - Stalker of the Endless Dunes

This soul is focused on gaining movement speed which helps a for clearing and is a nice quality of life boost for cycling. Every little bit helps. The +5% chance to evade attacks is a flat amount, so say you have a 53% chance to evade you now will have a 58% chance to evade. Pretty good as well.

Video:

T12 Villa:

Sloppy Hydra fight:

PoB Link:https://pastebin.com/dSg2RRR5

Skill Tree:http://tinyurl.com/yxbhl9f8

Example Link:https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2274804

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[PoE 3.6 Occultist]OneShotBoom - IceNova on Frostbolt Quad Curse Build

3.6 Synthesis Patch:

Since patch 3.6 brought many changes/adjustments to spells some will affect this build:

1) The total damage output on bosses is significantly increased, due to the lowered curse immunity of bosses 66% (from 80%)

2) Ice Nova has a slightly reduced damage, but nothing to concern about.

3) Ice Nova has a faster cast time of 0.7 (from 0.8)

4) The crafted mod "x% non-chaos damage as extra chaos damage" is gone/omitted. You may consider crafting "x% of cold damage as extra chaos damage" instead on your multi-crafted staff. 

Pros & Cons:

+ insane AoE damage output -> the whole screen explodes and shatters

+ utilizing a build with 4 curses (2 offensive curses + 2 defensive curses)

+ fairly safe to play, because everything gets chilled/frozen

+ do all content in the game (due to "Void Beacon" even HoGM variable) 

+ funny, refreshing playstyle

- expensive to min max 

- cast Ice Nova onto Frostbolts -> needs a bit of training...

- only Flame Dash as a movement skill

- two 6-links highly recommended 

- no ele reflect maps 

Gems Link:

First 6-link:

1) Frostbolt (quality increases global cold damage)

2) Greater Multiplier Projectiles (quality reduced damage debuff)

3) Curse on Hit (quality increases curse effect)

4) Frostbite (quality increases curse effect)

5) Slower Projectiles (quality increases damage)

6) Faster Casting (quality increases castrate)

Second 6-link:

1) Ice Nova (quality increases AoE)

2) Hypothermia (quality increases chill duration)

3) Controlled Destruction (quality increases damage)

4) Faster Casting (quality increases castrate)

5) Concentrated Effect (quality increases damage)

6) Spell Echo (quality increases damage)

Gloves & Boots & Helmet (4-link):

first 4-link:

1) Curse on Hit (quality increases curse effect)

2) Herald of Ice (quality increases (global) cold damage)

3) Enfeeble (quality increases effect)

4) Elemental Weakness (quality increases effect)

Second 4-link:

1) Flame Dash (quality increases cooldown)

2) Faster Casting (quality increases cast speed)

3) Less Duration (quality reduces skill duration)

4) Clarity (no quality needed)

Third 4-link:

1) Vaal Cold Snap (level 11) 

2) Cast when Damage took (level 9) 

3) Immortal Call (level 11) 

4) Increased Duration (level 20) (quality grants more duration)

Ascendency: Occultist

1) Forbidden Power

2) Profane Bloom

3) Malediction

4) Void Beacon

Pantheon:

1) Soul of Lunaris

2) Soul of Gruthkul

Note: capture all souls with divine vessels -> solid defense buff!

Keep in mind, that it is beneficial to swap the minor god on "Aul, the Crystal King (delve boss) to Yogul. 

Bandits:

Help Alira (more crit + more mana regen).

Video:

Shaper Kill:

Delve Mine at depth 376:

Random T15 Lava Lake Playstyle: 

Mathil´s Version (less damage / less curses) Video guide

PoB Link:https://pastebin.com/EqQuXqDq 

Skill Tree:http://tinyurl.com/yxdl927t

Example Link:http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2330578

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[PoE 3.6 Ascendant]Updated/Ice Nova CoC & Cospri Build

The basic concept of this build is:

Using CoC+Nova, plus Frostbolt on copper, and other cool things like Arctic Breath and Vortex, to create multiple casts of Ice Nova per trigger! As well as a good use of the 3.5 cold skills new mechanics!

Gems Link:

Kaom's Root is not mandatory for this build (if you're using Cyclone, you don't need it at all!). You can get Dusklight or rare boots, even Atziri's step and Garukhan can do just fine.

Let me explain a bit the mechanics:

First, we got the 6-Linked Carcass Jack (which received a decent buff with the AoE), a typical BF-CoC-IceNova setup. We're using Increased Crit. Chance for more procs, and Hypothermia instead of Elemental Focus because we need the defensives from Chill and Freeze.

The next will be the 3L Cospri: GMP-Frostbolt-Ice Nova

And on another item, Vortex-Bonechill

Here's how it works:

Frostbolt will let Ice Nova cast again, up to 2 Frostbolt duplicating per Ice Nova. Which basically means the Ice Nova will double its damage if there's enough Frostbolt in front of you!

Cospri's Ice Nova can also proc on Frostbolts as well!

Vortex can provide multiple benefits including end-game encounters, you can easily cast it since its an Instant skill! (where you cannot apply chill that easy).

Ascendancy:

Ascendancy can be very flexible. However, I would recommend Assassin for crit chance, power charges and a decent start point from the passive tree.

-For instance, if you don't like Kaom's root and want to take advantage of Pandemonius' blind effect, you can choose Jugg.

-If you'd like more damage and some ailment immunity, take Inquisitor. (my personal choice)

-If you're using Cyclone instead of Blade Flurry, you might want to get the Champion node for fortifying.

-Raider for infinite frenzy charges and onslaught, and even Slayer for the overreach.

Pantheon:

Assuming you have all gods captured and unlocked:

Major gods:

Soul of Lunaris: for general mapping, Elder/Uber Elder, Hydra, Chimera, Phoenix, etc.

Soul of Solaris: for Shaper, Minotaur, Purifier, Enslaver, Catarina, Phoenix, etc.

Soul of Arakaali: for Eradicator, Constrictor, etc.

Special Note(from @Malzamist): the recovery from Arakawa's minor god Arachnoxia is insane (especially when it's combined with the Acuity). 

Minor gods:

Soul of Gruthkul: for Minotaur (cyclone), general mapping, etc.

Soul of Tukohama: for Minotaur (Blade Flurry), general mapping, etc.

Soul of Yugul: for Elder/Uber Elder, Hydra, etc.

Soul of Ralakesh: for general mapping (to reduce the dot from Blood Rage)

Soul of Shakari: for any encounter that involves chaos dot and poison.

Soul of Abberath: for Enslaver, Phoenix, etc.

Soul of Garukhan: for general mapping.

Video:

Cyclone Version mapping showcase (T15 Carcass):

Harbinger, etc:

PoB Link:https://pastebin.com/LR5USbtX

Skill Tree:http://tinyurl.com/y6pfpuln

Example Link:https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2258456