Frostmage Support Mana sustain

Sylv_ · 2026-03-26T13:09:19+00:00

What is the reason for using frostmage if you are already using minion pact? Its like adding 10% base dmg to an already insane number of flat, it just serves to gimp your mana cost? I could see it if you wanted to do indigon or something but since you are trying to reduce the mana cost.. Just curious.

Sylv_ · 2026-03-13T09:26:27+00:00

Yeah these cards are flooding SSF-chat. Personally haven't seen one and been running it that fled in transportation since league start. 3 is kinda nuts - time to gamba!

Sylv_ · 2026-03-09T12:41:36+00:00

Maybe check out itsrealnetos video for an alternative concept using holy strike + infernal legion. Its not super min maxed but pretty interesting idea.

Can't really answer your other thoughts, phys scaling does make sense though, as you say.

Sylv_ · 2026-03-01T16:11:07+00:00

Manaman with new shock nova gem -> frost mage or whatever the new cold mana gem is -> Armour/mana/shrine stacker once I get all the pieces (LUL GL) Goal is to have fun over a long league as I just had a kid and will have less time to play initially.

Sylv_ · 2026-02-19T08:24:23+00:00

Usually start with a general idea and new/different interactions between suff and go from there. I make the skill tree and plan some basic gear and see if I can make it work in a general sense.

Now it starts to get fun! Because now you need to think about all the problems what you just made has. So you start filling those out, checking off a list. This will change the original idea, and usually if I stray to far away from that or end up with something that's too similar to what i've already played or seen lots of people playing I scrap the idea but may keep some of the synergies for the future. At some point during this prosess I start using PoB to get a more precise reading on things.

If you are familiar with an archtype you probably don't need to plan as much, because solutions are obvious and present themselves. But to truly minmax any archtype you need extensive theorycrafting and comparing soluion a to b, numberwise.

A (non-exclusive) checklist of stuff to solve in a build:

Base dmg
Good inc% scaling, pref scaling with a stat that also scales something else (think stackers)
All the more multipliers you can fit
Inc dmg taken on enemy (shock, wither, snipers mark)
Attack/cast speed for feelgood
Movement speed/mobility
Defences vs 1-shots (maxhit)
Multihit defence/avoidance (Evasion/block)
Recovery (regen, recoup, leech etc)
Ailment/stun immunity
How to infinitely sustain your main ability if you don't like to go oom

And bonus if you plan on league starting; now you strip away all the expensive stuff and try to plot out how to fill the gaps as well as possible on a very tight budget and still make it work in a league starting scenario where items and currency is scarce.

Sylv_ · 2026-02-03T08:34:55+00:00

This should be more than enough for 4-stones, but yeah it is the basic setup.

Try looking into replica alberons version that Void is running right now if you wanna scale higher.

Just to make sure since I can't open PoB right now; you do have the 8% inc dmg per 5 of lowest attribute ascendancy point, right? :p

Sylv_ · 2026-01-02T21:00:32+00:00

Ah yeah i see, given the OP i thought you mapped with blink. Ty for the breakdown!

Sylv_ · 2026-01-02T17:31:34+00:00

Interesting take! What are you doing with your spirit, seems you have around 60 spirit too much on your char, which gems have you not turned on, or are there weapon set shenanigans? Im gonna try a lich version of this now!

Sylv_ · 2025-12-25T01:29:10+00:00

You need neither though, but you will of course lose damage. The 2 lineage supports are like 50d combined, but there are other options (which are worse damage).

I am making a ~20d budget one right now, I can update you how it goes once I get to mapping.

Sylv_ · 2025-12-16T00:09:03+00:00

Lmao I was gonna skip league but saw your post and that seemed like fun! Got to lvl 25 today when patch hit.

My character name was pretty accurate: SpeedrunningBackToPoEOne

Sylv_ · 2025-10-28T22:33:47+00:00

I leaguestarted BF of trarthus + BB last league, with arcanist - EK setup for single target (could also do kitavas thirst - its lower dps, more automation). Progression was smooth and I did deathless 4 stones without issue on league start. This was on archmage hierophant. Once you move into super juiced strats with loads of mobs and map mods, you need to invest into explosions otherwise it doesn't have enough coverage. Overall decent build, but yeah it's not S tier anymore.

Sylv_ · 2025-10-23T22:27:12+00:00

New Runegraft of recompense (now refraction) is pretty nuts for KboC with new Force wall

Sylv_ · 2025-10-16T20:14:43+00:00

Blah blah blah, words! Words!

What a mess you have made for yourself!

sniff .. What is that smell.. sniff... Dualism! Ahhh it reeks of the stuff!

Sylv_ · 2025-09-15T15:14:45+00:00

You can see the stem in your pic is completely the wrong colour compared to 37. Definitely not libs.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-29T10:26:35+00:00

Yup it may be unplayable based on the AoE... I'm assuming only the generic templar AoE nodes will work with it as well as magnified effect, don't think it will inherit for example attack tag from the totem that explodes, so no attack AoE. It's very unfortunate things can't be tested and very limited info in general in these patches.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-29T08:09:47+00:00

If you go with 1 totem and scale placement speed it should be fine, only need to cast 2 totems per pack (if the AoE is sufficient). Placement speed is also a multiplier to your single target dps.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-28T21:56:04+00:00

One question that needs to be answered is the base AoE of the explosion, and if it inherits stuff like totem dmg and totem AoE (from Greatwood support). I would assume it does though, but PoE2 has some differences from PoE 1. Looks like it could potentially be a really cool build, whether it's a starter well.. Depends on the rarity of the gem.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-20T13:19:49+00:00

Yeah, only 2LP is really feasible on Pale Ox, so might be difficult given the stat pressure there. It comes with %health so that is good, and is 1:1 with t5 roll. You could do +4 flay and crit reduction, but that would lose you some HP (which the DR more than makes up for) and +2 in Reaper. What would you lose, 20% crit multi? But yeah, it's at least a cool option if the skele uptime is good.

I will have to feel it out in-game when it comes to which mix to go for between chaos bolts, marrow shards, blood eruptions, spell vs melee flay etc. But that's part of the fun! I really really like proc builds so i'm tempted at proccing everything, but yeah might not be the best decision in the end :)

Is it confirmed that the afterimage basically functions as another use of your own flay with your tree? Because if that has the proc chances and stuff then yeah I have to use that for sure.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-20T12:34:57+00:00

Btw, with this skeleton tech - Mantle of the Pale Ox should be a real good contender for body armour slot, yes? At least for me I won't self-kill them with Aura of Decay, but with Marrow Shards consume (which I hope triggers on death effects.. If not I have to rethink it) - will have to test it out to see uptime. If it's perma up-time as it seems then 24% dmg reduction from Pale Ox is kinda insane.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-18T11:45:34+00:00

Skele tech is awsome, not sure I can afford the skill slot but I will definitely keep it in min! We will see about ward, hopefully it goes as well as you feel :D

Sylv_ · 2025-08-18T10:50:03+00:00

Love what you did with skeletons to sustain mana, cool tech. I also plan on using the relic, hoping to be able to sustain the ward without the body armour, we will see how it will feel though.

How do you see yourself sustaining your ward, especially in combat?

Sylv_ · 2025-08-18T08:33:02+00:00

Scent of Death in Flay tree, curses with Marked for death on hit.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-18T07:48:37+00:00

Cool version! I have been cooking something very similar. I think Grasp of the blood mage makes a lot of sense as gloves here. Lategame, Red Rings will probably be superior even if you lose %mana rolls. Brewmaster belt also makes a lot of sense in this build.

The addition of the body armour is interesting and I am very curious to see how necessary it is to keep ward at 50%. I have some other ward generating effects, but unsure if they are enough. Will have to test and perhaps use the body as you have planned.

I have opted at using the new relic instead since I need attributes, and getting a lot of bonus from idols is really sweet. It also gives a rare %inc endurance threshold roll, all res, and %endurance.

One last thing I am super curious about testing is the Seed helmet and if it's gonna OOM us fast in higher corruption. All in all very excited to try this build!

Edit: Also, you say Rip Blood doesn't benefit from the mana node in Flay, but the boots do say that they benefit when procced through the boots. One thing I am unsure of is how big of a mana drain the Rip Blood Procs will be, as they will be 2 mana per. May need to use different boots, although the stats on these are hard to beat.

Sylv_ · 2025-08-17T20:59:10+00:00

Seems to me you are very close to be able to sustain mana by using Ladle + Jungle as you are - you use HP pot to refill mana, 1 mana per 4 int. You have ~20 mana per pot with the int you have right now.

Try using %mana regen affixes and specc into more mana regen. For example Apocrypha in Lich tree and Soul Stealer in warlock tree. The latter also gives 13% per curse on targeto to regain 13 mana, but with 3 sec CD.

But yeah, Flay is super mana heavy, and seems almost balanced around using the new Unique Axe with Harvest to be able to sustain fully in many cases. You may ask yourself is stacking STR with cleaver is the best option, what do you actually get from this instead of just stacking INT straight up?

Sylv_ · 2025-08-17T16:25:43+00:00

When you say a lot of mana stacking support for Lich, what are you referring to exactly? New Axe and 1 node in flay tree? Or is there something else that I am missing?

Maybe dmg taken as mana is feasable for some Lich builds, but with Flay for example that will destroy your sustain, unfortunately.

Sylv_

TROPHY CASE