Witch - [3.21] ShakCentral's Cold DoT Elementalist For Everyone - Forum - Path of Exile (2024)

Friendship with Coldsnap finished, Wintertide new best friend.

Wintertide allows you to cast 3 brands. Each brand has 2 parts: active for 2 seconds, then inactive for 4 seconds. Each with its own dot.

Active brands can stack up to 3, to which we can add a fourth (inactive) brand dot.

Wintertide dps increase with time. 20% more every 0.25 sec up to 20 times, for a maximum total of 400% more.

base dps is 164.6 dot dps at lv 20. That's potentially 823 dps per brand. x4 with the "inactive" one for a total of 3292 dps per second.

However if we count the ramp up time, and estimate we reach 20 stage after 2 seconds exactly, wintertide x4 has 1975.2 dot dps average.

But that's not the full story, the active part during which stages are gained is 2 seconds. Without help it's 8 stages, not 20. So 1711.84 dot max dps in total, 1185 average.

Bear in mind too that the gem has a 0.7 sec cast time, if we cast it 3 times in a row, that's 1.4 second. I doubt we will stay still casting like a maniac, so at best we will cast once per second (without support). With 2 active brands and one inactive, it's 888.84 dps.

That means the extra brand provided by the Runebinder keystone might not be necessary, as we simply do not have the time/opportunity to cast 3 brands within 2 seconds.

However, You can increase the number of stages with faster casting and Swiftbrand. I don't know if increased duration support works with the active part. Faster casting is particularly interesting as we don't use casting speed due to Vortex instant nature -we never did need it.

With supports, you should be able to activate it 16 times, that’s 1711.84 average dot dps.

For comparison here are various base cold dot dps:
vortex 1456.9
cold snap 1193.2
arctic breath 1383.5

I'm not sure yet if a 4 link helm/shoes/gloves or 3 link trigger weapon is better for Wintertide.I guess a 4 link because our 3 link trigger is dedicated to other useful stuff. (storm brand can be replaced by stormbind mines or greater spire i guess)

Note that an extra large thread of hope in the west most socket allows you to allocate both Runebinder and Glancing Blows (with some other goodies). As well, an Intuitive leap in the northern slot allows you to alloacte 4 very poverful passives (and intuitive leap should be back to 8-15c this league).

"

Roselan wrote:

Note that an extra large thread of hope in the west most socket allows you to allocate both Runebinder and Glancing Blows (with some other goodies). As well, an Intuitive leap in the northern slot allows you to alloacte 4 very poverful passives (and intuitive leap should be back to 8-15c this league).

Welp, thanks for causing a freakout in the Discord. I didn't know this. This is MASSIVE.

"

MrMustang wrote:

For the dual curse LL set-up you spec out of Vile Bastion, and take Malediction, right? I didn't see it mentioned in the guide, but I could have possibly skipped over it. I was just asking cause PoB has the same ascendancy points for all trees, so I was just wondering how you use two curses with the Vile Bastion node.

LL usually uses chayula necklace which already gives stunimmunity. i'd assume changing ascendancy at that point is pretty surely the way to go, yea

"

I'll repeat my question from earlier since you guys are now hopping on the Wintertide train: I think Wintertide sharing a 6L with Vortex is the way to go for damage, but this poses problems for EO since using Storm Brand will drop all active Wintertides (assuming no Runebinder). OoS isn't great as an EO proccing spell, so does anyone have any ideas for a suitable replacement to Storm Brand?

You could easily slap something like arc in there to just aoe a bit.

Something i'm interested in is using a 6L wintertide and using 4l vortex/CS

"

Wintertide sharing a 6L with Vortex is the way to go for damage

Absolutly not. Wintertide relies on activation speed, cast speed (and maybe spell duration) to scale it's inbred damage. All these stuff are useless for vortex. If you want to share your 6L with 2 skill you better off using cold snap or arctic breath. Both will deal nearly double the damage with one cast, not 3.

That said this will be confirmed only with some PoB simulation.

"

but this poses problems for EO since using Storm Brand will drop all active Wintertides (assuming no Runebinder). OoS isn't great as an EO proccing spell, so does anyone have any ideas for a suitable replacement to Storm Brand?

Orb of Storm, Frost Bomb, Lightning Spire Trap. (or Ball Lightning in worst case scenario)

"

moon_nmh wrote:

"

I'll repeat my question from earlier since you guys are now hopping on the Wintertide train: I think Wintertide sharing a 6L with Vortex is the way to go for damage, but this poses problems for EO since using Storm Brand will drop all active Wintertides (assuming no Runebinder). OoS isn't great as an EO proccing spell, so does anyone have any ideas for a suitable replacement to Storm Brand?

You could easily slap something like arc in there to just aoe a bit.

Something i'm interested in is using a 6L wintertide and using 4l vortex/CS

If your dps can clear on 4L vortex go for it. Boss damage for WT in a 6L should be impressive. Even more so with a handful of brands nodes from the tree. Plus you can stack brands while the boss explains to you his grand evil plan (MWHAHAHA). No Math or PoB tinkering yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if paper damage is nearly twice vortex.

That said, vortex shines with it's "i never stop try catch me, tralala" style. When a hungry giant wolf is chasing you, the last thing you want is stop to slap a cold brand on it's muff.

This is balance.