PoE 3.25 Forged Frostbearers Half a Mirror Budget and Changes.

[@ogkdr]

I stuck to Frosties throughout the entire league and have currently pushed them to 90+ million DPS in a non-crit setup, combined with ~250k EHP thanks to Svalinn's OP block stat. For titanic blight bosses I switch to dual wands for 140 million DPS (switching bone offering with flesh offering), as killing them quickly seems to be better for survivability than relying on actual defenses. I'd say WifeDota's ward tank version remains the best in terms of budget versus performance, but it definitely is possible to push these guys to extremes. Total budget was around 500-600 divines, and there's still room to grow. For anyone looking for a build with near endless scaling options, pure spectres is definitely a great choice. All in all I'd say there are much better builds out there delivering similar damage and EHP numbers, but it has been a fun journey. Thanks to you, Doominated, and to WifeDota for the inspiration going full spectre this league!

[@Doominated69]

Cool! Thank you for the writeup!

[@WifeDota]

Now we're cooking. Awesome stuff :)

[@crombi574]

hey i dont know if this is still relevant for you. but u could prefix cannot be changed scouring your +2 wand and then multi mod trigger + minion dmg. then u would gain a mod

[@Doominated69]

Don't think that works on this wand sadly, If i prefix cannot be changed i will have minions are aggressive as a suffix, then i craft multimod which would be my second suffix, then craft trigger which is my 3rd, essentially having 3 suffixes. There is also an increased spell damage prefix that i would have to anull. Appreciate the thought tho!

[@rheteur8001]

Do you think it's ever worth damage buffing spectres (Primal Crushclaw, Pale Seraphim, Arena Master)?

[@Doominated69]

Replacing 1 spectre with a Primal Crushclaw is worth it for the cold damage taken debuff. But i would say this mostly benefits you on bosses, i prefer just having the extra Frostbearer. Spectral leader is great for the action speed buff, but is so incredibly squishy it will probably just die.

[@Luka-ml4ho]

I switched to Serpent warriors. My damage basically trippled and these arent as clunky. I don’t get why Frostbearers feel so bad while playing. With their stats i thought they would be great in epilogue but they suck.

[@Doominated69]

I feel you, I expected way more from them as well. Serpent Warriors are awesome, might play around with them a bit as well.

[@zetoxicalslaixx3735]

any pob for that ? iam pretty happy with the frostbearer currently but after i looked up the serpent warriors they look pretty fun ngl. can they hit into prox shields ?

[@SamyADV]

do you have a PoB of your serpent warriors? im curious of your setup

[@Luka-ml4ho]

I dont have one but i ts prohibited to post links anyway. I am using Covenant, united in dreams and wraithlord. Meat shield support is mandatory otherwise SW dont work

[@chaseliou1070]

@@Luka-ml4hocan this guy fire off-screen? Also for greater volley/project they mortal skill raise from 1 to 9 right?

[@Gramineous]

Given the issues with being swarmed, do you think Void Sphere might be a useful utility gem to help mitigate that issue?

[@Doominated69]

Void Sphere might be able to help indeed, but I don't think it will be potent enough in simulacrums.

[@VaporizeTeam]

Are those gloves actually worth it?

[@Doominated69]

I ran a lot of setups this league with Forged Frostbearers. I did not find the gloves to be very much worth, a 6 link setup non-crit is probably even a little bit better in damage, cause u get to use awakenend controlled destruction for unnerve, and awakenend cold penetration for cold exposure. I suggest checking out Wifedota's ward build with frostbearers, pretty sure that is the best/most convenient setup for frosties this league.

[@jasonrouse8215]

@@Doominated69 I'm using a max crit Maata's Teaching with +2 minion for my FFB... It's budget, but I find the Aggressive wand ruins my FFB targeting, I also use Meatshield on them now, it takes away the cowardly ai they have, and just makes them bombard anything that even remotely gets near me. I also need to note that I'm using a Fleshcrafter to mitigate Ele res & Primal Crushclaw for inc cold damage taken. I've done about 80-90% of content on a +-5 Div budget. I used Omens to 6l my Fleshcrafter for about 1 Div, I think the 6l omen was around 150c. It's nowhere near minmaxed, but it's good enough to run anything up to t16 with ease, including no regen. I'm using 2 Worm jars (hybrid flask for life & mana), and minion leech insta heals me to full from worms. Also a decent setup if you want minions to get the Soul eater buff in boss fights, when there are no other spawns.

[@Doominated69]

@@jasonrouse8215 Nice setup, Maata's Teaching only applies to attacks however and not spells sadly.

[@jasonrouse8215]

@@Doominated69 Oh... i did not know that... huh... Well that changes things, thanks for letting me know.

[@Majkiso]

How you craft this gloves??? spam essens?

[@Doominated69]

Grab shaper infuence base gloves, spam with horror essences untill u hit either faster casting or critical strike multiplier for spells. Then u need to make sure you ahve only 2 suffixes, if your 3rd suffix is a shaper mod, you can use orb of dominance, if not, you will have to anull. Once you have 2 suffixes, craft suffixes cannot be changed, and reforge caster in the horti bench, which will GUARANTEE you get either faster casting or crit multi, depending on what you already have. Then ur suffixes will be done. Now crafting slower projectiles as a prefix is gonna be quite a bit more costly, as you will just need to keep on locking suffxies and then using a chaos orb till you hit it, i got lucky and got it first try. Even just having the 3 suffixes will be good however, and that is relatively easy to achieve. If you would like a video guide, Spark gloves are made in a very similar way, the biggest difference being that we don't need elder influence, and there is quite a few guides up for those on youtube.

[@vex2538]

how do you craft those gloves?

[@Doominated69]

Grab shaper infuence base gloves, spam with horror essences untill u hit either faster casting or critical strike multiplier for spells. Then u need to make sure you ahve only 2 suffixes, if your 3rd suffix is a shaper mod, you can use orb of dominance, if not, you will have to anull. Once you have 2 suffixes, craft suffixes cannot be changed, and reforge caster in the horti bench, which will GUARANTEE you get either faster casting or crit multi, depending on what you already have. Then ur suffixes will be done. Now crafting slower projectiles as a prefix is gonna be quite a bit more costly, as you will just need to keep on locking suffxies and then using a chaos orb till you hit it, i got lucky and got it first try. Even just having the 3 suffixes will be good however, and that is relatively easy to achieve. If you would like a video guide, Spark gloves are made in a very similar way, the biggest difference being that we don't need elder influence, and there is quite a few guides up for those on youtube.

[@vex2538]

@Doominated69 thanks for the detailed explanation! Sounds costly to get slower proj, it's a shame it doesn't have a tag

[@Applekendee]

This is why I re roll to non pure spectre build. Another thing is Hatred is not applicable to minions anymore. Sadge.

[@Doominated69]

Yea the Hatred nerf is quite big.

[@mikezoro7988]

Where did you see that hatred doesnt affect minions??

[@Applekendee]

@mikezoro7988 in 3.25 Hatred only gives convert phys dmg to cold dmg. It used to have a secondary buff of extra cold damage for you and allies, which is huge for cold minion build.

[@ogkdr]

@@Applekendee A bit late of a reply, but the Perfect Hydra spectre still gives the old Hatred aura. Might be an oversight by GGG or intended, not sure. Makes for a great damage boost support spectre, is cheap to buy and has good survivability when linked with minion life.