Cold Snap of Power
Occultist Build

Updated for Patch 3.23

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

The new Cold Snap of Power is seemingly the ideal Spell - it has very high base Damage and Effectiveness of the added Damage, a 10% base Critical Strike Chance, and very fast Cast Speed. The only downside here is that it has a Cooldown, which you can bypass by sacrificing Power Charges. If you pair this Spell with the Power Charge on Critical Strikes Support at max Quality, you will have over 100% Chance to gain Power Charges when you Hit with Critical Strike. 

The Occultist is the best Ascendency for this Skill for obvious reasons. It grants you a lot of Cold Damage, access to additional Curse, and grants you tons of Damage and AoE for each Power Charge you have. 

If you rely on the Power Charges to scale your Damage, it can be very inconsistent when you constantly spend them to bypass the Cooldown. To preserve all benefits from the maximum Power Charges you should use Ralakesh's Impatience Boots. You still need to generate Charges to be able to spend them. Those Boots will also grant you all benefits from Frenzy and endurance Charges, which would be very hard to generate otherwise. 

The Build is moderately tanky due to high Evasion, Immunity to Elemental Ailments, and a high amount of maximum Life sources from the Utula's Hunger. You will also Freeze or at least heavily slow down most Enemies. You can use the Enfeeble as your third Curse, heavily reducing the Damage of affected Enemies. 

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1. Gameplay

Use the Cold Snap of Power to obliterate your Enemies. You may have to throw in the Storm Brand occasionally to generate Power Charges against Bosses. To automate Curses you can use Arcanist Brand or the new Bane of Condemnation. As Auras you should use Hatred, Grace, Purity of Elements, Herald of Ice, and Vitality. 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

You will need a very high Critical Strike Chance to reliably generate Power Charges, so you should use any other Cold Spell to level up. The best choice would be any Cold DoT, for example, the regular Cold Snap. It doesn't require Crit and scales very well with just Cold Spell Passives. Fortunately, Witch excels at this type of Build during the campaign. You can check out our Witch Leveling Guide using Cold DoT in PoE for more tips. 

Suggested leveling Gem setups:

Cold Snap setup
	Cold Snap - the regular version of this Spell deals moderate Hit Damage and leaves a Cold DoT ground.
	Wintertide Brand - a Brand that deals Cold DoT to Enemies it attaches to. You can use Tabula Rasa to have two 5-link setups, or if that's not available, use two regular 4-link Setups.
	Efficacy Support - improves the Damage and Duration of your Skills.
	Inspiration Support - improves your Damage and reduces your Mana Costs.
	Elemental Focus Support - disables inflicting Ailments but grants a lot of Damage. You don't need the Chill to deal Damage with your DoTs.
	Controlled Destruction Support - grants a lot of Damage but heavily reduces Critical Strike Chance.

Flame Dash setup
	Flame Dash - a great teleport Skill that helps you move around faster and cross large terrain gaps.

Utility Gems
	Summon Skitterbots - those inflict Chill and Shock on nearby Enemies. You can link it with the Bonechill Support to further improve your Damage, but doing so will increase the Mana Reservation.
	Vitality - a very important defensive Aura that helps you stay alive during the campaign.
	Clarity - you will need this Aura to regenerate Mana at a better rate.
	Frostbite - this Curse heavily reduces the Cold Resistance of your Enemies.

Bandits:

Kill all Bandits to be rewarded with 2 additional Passive Tree Points.

Leveling Skill Trees:

35 Points Skill Tree
During the Campaign, you should pick nearby Damage Passives to speed up your progression. You should refund them once you reach the Endgame.  

64 Points Skill Tree
Take Cold Spell Damage, Life, and Mana Notables. At this point, you are very close to both Power Charges, which you can pick once you are ready to start Mapping. 

Recommended leveling items:

Le Heup of All - this Ring provides you with Damage, Attributes, and Resistance, all of them are very useful to have.
(10-30)% increased Damage +(10-30) to all Attributes (10-30)% increased Rarity of Items found +(10-30)% to all Elemental Resistances

Goldrim - the best defensive Helmet to use during the campaign to ensure you are capped on your Resistance.
+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden)

Tabula Rasa - a very powerful and universal Armour to boost your Damage. You should socket 2 Cold DoT Skills for a dual 5-link, as they can stack.

Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden)

Wanderlust - those grant a decent amount of Movement Speed and Mana Regeneration. Immunity to Freeze is also very good.

+5 to Dexterity +(10-20) to maximum Energy Shield (20-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 20% increased Movement Speed Cannot be Frozen

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

118 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Unique or Cluster Jewels)
118 Points Path of Building(PoB) link 

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in the order:

1. Void Beacon
2. Frigid Wake
3. Forbidden Power
4. Unholy Authority

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Arakaali 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time; +40% Chaos Resistance against Damage Over Time

Minor God: Soul of Shakari 50% less Duration of Poisons on You; 5% reduced Chaos Damage taken

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Cold Snap of Power setup
	Cold Snap of Power - deals high Cold Damage in the Area. The Cooldown can be bypassed by spending Power Charges. It has the highest Critical Strike Chance in the game and has a 30% chance to generate a Power Charge if you Hit an Enemy.
	Intensify Support - as you repeat Casting this Skill, you will gain Intensify stacks. It grants tons of AoE for single Casts or Damage if you keep Casting.
	Power Charge on Critical Support - grants more Damage for each Power Charge you have, as well as generates Power Charges which you can spend to bypass Cooldown.
	Spell Echo Support - greatly improves your Cast Speed by repeating the Spell again.
	Added Cold Damage Support - adds plenty of Cold Damage to your Spells. The Awakened version also increases the level of your Cold Snap by 1.
	Spell Cascade Support - creates additional bursts around your main target. It greatly boosts your AoE Coverage. You can Hit your Enemies with 2 explosions, but it requires very precise positioning and may be impossible against some Enemies.  Use the Bonechill Support for stronger Freeze and guaranteed Damage.

[UTILITY] Auras setup
	Purity of Elements - grants Immunity to all Elemental Ailments, and provides plenty of Elemental Resistances.
	Grace - grants a lot of Evasion Rating and helps you improve it further. It also has very potent available modifiers on the Watcher's Eye Jewel.
	Petrified Blood - delays the Damage from incoming Hits, making them easier to manage. It makes your Leech more effective and enables the Pain Attunement Keystone for 30% more Damage.
	Enlighten Support - reduces the Mana Reservation of linked Auras.
	Vitality - grants Life Regeneration and allows you to gain Life Leech via Watcher's Eye Jewel. You can keep it at a low level to reduce the Mana Reservation.

[UTILITY] Arrogance setup
	Herald of Ice - grants a bit of Cold Damage to your Spells, and explodes with Cold Damage around the Enemies you Shatter. You could replace it with Arctic Armour to gain Physical Damage Reduction while Casting.
	Arrogance Support - causes your Auras to Reserve Life instead of Mana. You will need one Jewel with Global Reservation Efficiency so your Leech won't stop upon filling 50% Life.

[UTILITY] Divine Blessing setup
	Zealotry - improves your Spell Damage and Critical Strike Chance. You can also use the Hatred Aura instead, the main difference comes from the relevant modifiers on the Watcher's Eye.
	Divine Blessing Support - changes your permanent Aura into a temporal buff. It doesn't reserve Mana but requires high enough amounts of Energy Shield to Cast it.
	Inspiration Support - greatly reduces the Mana Cost of your Blessing.

[UTILITY] Curse setup
	Frostbite - lowers the Cold Resistance and makes your Freeze last longer on the affected Enemies.
	Enfeeble - lowers the Damage and Accuracy of your Enemies. You can also use the Temporal Chains to slow them down and further improve the duration of your Freeze.
	Elemental Weakness - lowers all Elemental Resistance of your foes. You can use the third Curse thanks to the Whispers of Doom Notable.
	Arcanist Brand - to apply all your Curses with just one button you can use the Arcanist Brand or the new Bane of Condemnation.

[UTILITY] Utility Skills
	Frostblink - a very good Movement Skill for this Build. It deals enough Damage to kill weak Enemies.
	Storm Brand - if find yourself out of Charges very often, you should consider using any Skill with a fast Hit Rate such as this Brand to generate Power Charges.
	Power Charge on Critical Support - generates Power Charges when you land a Critical Hit with supported Spells.

[UTILITY] Guard Skills
	Steelskin - creates a protective barrier that absorbs incoming Damage and stops Bleeding on you.

5. Gear Setup

You will obviously need certain Unique Items that interact with your Charges. In this Setup, we use 9 Power Charges. You can go for more, but you would sacrifice a lot of defense, and the Damage is good enough without them anyway. The Utula's Hunger Armour grants a lot of maximum Life and significantly reduces the price of all other Items since you don't need maximum Life modifiers on them. To improve the Damage you should look for Cast Speed and Critical Strike Multiplier. On your Rare Items, you will also need Spell Suppression, Resistances, and Attributes. It is important to have a Corrupted Implicit on any of your Jewel that grants 2% Reservation Efficiency so your Leech won't stop once you fill 50% maximum Life with Petrified Blood. Use Energy Shield Items to have enough Recharge to sustain your Casting with Eldritch Battery. 

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - you can get a lot of Mana Reservation Efficiency with Essence and Eldritch Implicit. It should also provide Attributes or Resistance. You can opt for an additional Power Charge, but you would need to readjust your Auras.

Min. requirements: 70% Total Elemental Resistances 14% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills (Essence of Loathing + Eldritch Implicit) Optional affixes: Nearby Enemies take #% increased Elemental Damage % chance to Suppress Spell Damage #% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage +1 to maximum Power Charge Attributes

(Weapon) Void Battery - grants additional Power Charge, Cast Speed, Critical Strike Chance, and a lot of Spell Damage. Aim for the highest roll on the Cast Speed. You can Corrupt it to get even more AoE. You should use two of them. You might be tempted to use the Malachai's Loop Shield, but it makes spending Power Charges very annoying.

(36-40)% increased Spell Damage 80% reduced Spell Damage (10-20)% increased Cast Speed (50-65)% increased Global Critical Strike Chance +(40-50) to maximum Mana +1 to Maximum Power Charges 25% increased Spell Damage per Power Charge

(Amulet) Badge of the Brotherhood - another important element of every Power Charge stacker. It raises your Frenzy Charge limit to be equal to Power Charges, which in this Build means 36% More Damage and Cast Speed. It also lowers the Cooldown of your Frostblink.

+(16-24) to Dexterity and Intelligence (7-10)% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate of Travel Skills per Frenzy Charge (7-10)% increased Effect of Elusive on you per Power Charge (20-25)% chance to lose a Frenzy Charge when you use a Travel Skill (20-25)% chance to lose a Power Charge when you gain Elusive Your Maximum Frenzy Charges is equal to your Maximum Power Charges

(Body Armour) Utula's Hunger - grants tons of maximum Life and lowers the burden on your other Items. It should be Corrupted for +2 Levels for AoE Gems. Doing so will make Colouring with Tainted Chromatics very easy.

(60-100)% increased Armour Recover (1-3)% of Life on Kill (30-40)% increased Stun and Block Recovery +(700-1000) to maximum Life if there are no Life Modifiers on other Equipped Items

(Body Armour) Rare Armour - you can use a regular Rare Armour with bonuses to maximum Life, Spell Suppression, Resistances, and Aura Effect. When doing so, you will also need maximum Life on all other Rare Items.

Min. requirements: 70% Total Elemental Resistances +80 to maximum Life +20% chance to Suppress Spell Damage Optional affixes: Physical Damage from Hits taken as Elemental % increased Life Chaos Resistance

(Boots) Ralakesh's Impatience - with those Boots you can consume your Power Charges without losing Damage. It also grants you the effects of Frenzy and Endurance Charges, which you couldn't generate otherwise.

+(15-25)% to Cold Resistance +(15-25)% to Chaos Resistance 30% increased Movement Speed Count as having maximum number of Endurance Charges Count as having maximum number of Frenzy Charges Count as having maximum number of Power Charges

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - here you should focus on defensive bonuses such as Resistance, Spell Suppression, or Attributes. You can get a bit of Damage here too, but it is not as important as correct Eldritch Implicits that can be used to apply the Unnerve and Exposure on your Enemies. Energy Shield Recharge Rate can significantly improve your sustain.

Min. requirements: +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage 70% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Inflict Cold Exposure on Hit, applying -#% to Lightning Resistance (Eater) % chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit (Exarch) % increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies % increased Elemental Damage

(Belt) Rare Belt - another defensive Item, look for Resistance and Strength. You can craft a modifier that grants Energy Shield Regeneration while a Rare or Unique Enemy is nearby to improve your sustain.

Min. requirements: +40 to Strength 60% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: increased Damage Chaos Resistance Maximum Energy Shield Regenerate 150 Energy Shield per second while a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby Attributes

(Belt) Rare Abyss Jewel - it is the best target to obtain the Corrupted Implicit that grants Reservation Efficiency. Other than that, it should provide maximum Life, Resistances, Attributes, and optionally Cast Speed and Critical Strike Multiplier. Jewels do not count as Equipped Items.

Min. requirements: 30 maximum Life 2% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills Optional affixes: % to Global Critical Strike Multiplier % Total Elemental Resistances Attributes % increased Cast Speed if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently

(Ring) Rare Ring - here you should get a lot of Resistances and Attributes. To improve your Damage you should look for Cast Speed and Crit Multiplier. Make sure you can sustain the improved Cast Speed, otherwise it would be a waste.

Min. requirements: 60% Total Elemental Resistances +40 to Strength or Dexterity Optional affixes: Cast Speed Attributes Critical Strike Multiplier

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - here you should focus on maximum Life, missing Resistances or Attributes, and Critical Strike Multiplier. It can also provide a bit of Mana Reservation Efficiency.

Recommended affixes: increased Critical Strike Multiplier with Spells or Elemental/Cold Skills increased Maximum Life Elemental Resistances Attributes Mana Reservation Efficiency

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - thanks to this Jewel you can get the Doryani's Lesson Notable that grants you Life Leech. Pair it with 2 other useful modifiers depending on your budget. The Cold to the Core Notable is quite good in this Build since you need plenty of Attributes for your Gems anyway.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Blanketed Snow 1 Added Passive Skill is Doryani's Lesson 1 Added Passive Skill is Stormrider 1 Added Passive Skill is Prismatic Heart 1 Added Passive Skill is Cold to the Core

(Jewel) Watcher's Eye - a very useful Jewel for this Build. You can use it to obtain Spell Suppression, Life Leech, redirect a portion of Physical Damage to be taken as Elemental, or additional Damage from Hatred or Zealotry.

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended modifiers:  +(12-15)% chance to Suppress Spell Damage while affected by Grace Adds (58-70) to (88-104) Cold Damage while affected by Hatred Damage Penetrates (10-15)% Cold Resistance while affected by Hatred

(Jewel) Militant Faith - converts nearby Keystone into Inner Conviction Keystone, which grants you more Damage per Power Charge but disables generating Frenzy Charges, which you bypass with your Boots.

Carved to glorify (2000-10000) new faithful converted by High Templar Dominus Passives in radius are Conquered by the Templars Historic

(Flask) Taste of Hate - grants a decent amount of protection against Physical and Cold Damage.

(10-15)% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Cold Damage during Effect Gain (10-15)% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage during effect 30% chance to Avoid being Chilled during Effect 30% chance to Avoid being Frozen during Effect

Other suggested Flasks: Quartz Flask with Mana Cost of Skills bonus Jade Flask with Evasion Rating bonus Life Flask with Bleeding Removal Quicksilver Flask with Cast Speed bonus

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

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