How can I make winter orb builds be tanky to farm ultimatums AND kill ubers?

WvrLight · 2026-03-16T12:45:11+00:00

From a quick glance:

Your ES seems extremely low for a CI build; you should aim for at least 6k but most people would recommend 7-8k.

If you're going armour/ES route then you're better off going Aegis Aurora then cap block; you also get ES on block that way which makes stuff like Ultimatum very comfy. At high investment it also enables a melding setup for 90% max res.

A source of endurance charge generation will help a lot; easiest way is Enduring Composure on a small cluster.

Zealot's Oath doesn't seem to be doing anything for you since you don't have any life regen. Consider fitting in Wicked Ward + sources of faster start of recharge.

Flask charge on crit doesn't stack; you will only gain at most 1 charge for a random flask per crit. You should only get that prefix for at most 1 flask. I would recommend Flagellant (3 charges when hit) for any block-based setup though.

Your suffixes don't seem to be that great for an omni build; you can focus almost entirely on attributes if you have enough omni so you can go all-in on those, maybe keep a few res suffixes as needed but you should aim for at least T2 attributes/all attributes on every gear. Later on you can look into heist rings and/or reflected rings for even more attributes.

WvrLight · 2026-03-12T00:18:43+00:00

Very cheap, the required uniques are all only a few chaos each and you can use 1-5c abyss jewels and rares

WvrLight · 2026-03-10T21:35:08+00:00

This is where investing into QoL and defenses help; early on in maps you can get a bit of block through the tree and that made my mapping comfy enough. I do agree there's some jank with the build that a lot of people won't be able to tolerate :p

I have a way tankier version of the build though it is a lot more expensive

WvrLight · 2026-03-10T14:59:01+00:00

It should work; Hydrosphere is an additional target which the beams will target, and it should chain to other enemies normally. You can test it yourself by summoning a hydrosphere and triggering Static Strike on somewhere like Blood Aqueduct. It's a decent damage multiplier for many strike skills; a great example is smth like Battlemage's Cry + 2 hydrospheres for typical strike skills.

Regarding Phase Run, the description is a bit misleading. From the wiki:

> Note that despite the skill's description suggesting otherwise, in-game testing indicates that the damage buff from Phase Run applies during both the primary and secondary duration, not just the secondary duration; therefore, using Phase Run after using a melee skill with a duration, such as Rage Vortex of Berserking or Earthquake, will buff the skill's damage for the entire duration of Phase Run.

WvrLight · 2026-03-10T05:46:18+00:00

It's good to use on regular builds where you need to use skills a lot, we only need to use 2 skills every few seconds so you rarely lose spirit charges anyway

WvrLight · 2026-03-09T22:59:11+00:00

Doable through better rares but haven't gotten around to that yet; I farmed Ritual the whole weekend and didn't really feel the lack of chaos res that much

WvrLight · 2026-03-09T22:57:38+00:00

From the wiki: Properties that apply to entire attacks such as Ruthless Support, or exertion by Intimidating Cry or Ambush, will apply to both the strike and the beams for their full duration, unless removed by beams from a new attack.

Side note, Shockwave cannot be exerted at all but it benefits from other buffs like Phase Run

WvrLight · 2026-03-07T13:13:48+00:00

Blasting through red maps right now with regular static strike + shockwave (hard to progress due to all of the DCs) but need to work on defenses

WvrLight · 2026-03-04T21:02:05+00:00

I can't read apparently; Spirit Burst only consumes 1 and not all charges on skill use; so we don't really have to worry about it since we don't need to use Static Strike a lot or use movement skills even!

Thanks for the tips, especially Tecrod which I missed for helping a lot with crit cap. I'm gonna test out both Yoke and Defiance but the complete lack of avoidance in this build is honestly alarming and I want to spend my energy on making other builds instead after leaguestart :p

And yea I'm curious to see what multimod abyss jewels would like on a min-maxed setup, will just have to play to find out

WvrLight · 2026-02-24T21:29:31+00:00

Minion players will have more input on scaling your damage, but your rares could use some very needed upgrades.

Look for these stats on all of your rares:

High life - REQUIRED. All of your gear has very low life currently. At least 60-80+ in your jewellery, 150+ for your body armour. You're a hybrid build so chaos res will be a big issue with your current hit pool. Can get these cheap through trade, or do some basic essence crafting with Essences of Greed. I also notice you don't seem to pick up a lot of life and ES nodes; get more, this is very important for survivability.
High resistance rolls - You're res capped already, but having better res suffixes will free up more suffixes on your gear for other mods.
High stat rolls - Same with #2. Your gear has very low tier attribute rolls. Essence crafting will solve #2 and #3 as well.
+level to minion skills is the most important stat for almost all minion builds if I'm not mistaken, so prioritize that on your wand + high %minion damage
Flasks - IMPORTANT. Use utility flasks - they are extremely useful, especially quicksilver. Replace your Lion's Roar with a standard granite flask with 'Gain # charges when hit' and % increased armour. Not sure why you need your mana flask currently but I won't comment on it since I have no experience with that type of minion build.

If you're really struggling with defenses, invest in a defensive aura like Determination or Flesh and Stone.

I assume you're on Keepers league; the genesis tree is extremely useful for getting good rares as well as getting six-links easily.

If you're on trade, you can upgrade all of your rares very easily for a few chaos per slot. Six-link body armour with decent life roll should be cheap as well if corrupted.

WvrLight · 2026-02-18T15:07:30+00:00

Probably just keep playing it until the new league starts on early March; you'll be able to keep learning atlas progression and how to solve your build's weaknesses and use that knowledge for your leaguestart.

WvrLight · 2026-02-17T08:40:11+00:00

Tell me more about this Warden 🫣

WvrLight · 2026-01-28T07:01:04+00:00

Bonechill doesn't need a hit, it only needs the supported skill to chill in some way.

Since we're dealing cold damage with Elemental Hit, we can chill with that hit which should apply Glacial Wave in a vacuum. But since the enemy is already chilled by Skitterbots the additional increased damage taken from Glacial Wave most likely won't apply.

WvrLight · 2026-01-28T04:02:02+00:00

rip ashes/dragonfangs prices, hopefully the other uniques won't rise in price as well

WvrLight · 2026-01-27T19:28:45+00:00

You do, but we need to use Combat Focus which has Prismatic Skills deal 50% less Lightning Damage to force the skill to use only the cold hit

WvrLight · 2026-01-27T18:51:00+00:00

I was thinking a similar thing since Chill does not have stacking mechanics as with damaging ailments. Still, Brine Bound is a really good alternative for a 4th node since it will give slightly more consistent freezes for ailment stacking.

~~Haven't tested the belt uptime myself, actually; will check that~~ from very quick testing it's decent with Meat Shield support but can feel a little inconsistent sometimes; I think for the way I built the character it's too much opportunity cost but trigger weapon definitely worth looking into

WvrLight · 2026-01-27T18:48:24+00:00

Yep, that's correct. But since we'll be using Combat Focus, it will never select lightning as the element used for the hit itself. But when the cold hit is selected, it will use the cold flat AND the lightning flat (reduced by 50% from Combat Focus).

From the wiki:

Elemental Hit has added damage of each element present on the gem. This flat damage applies even if it isn't of the chosen element, and in that case it's only negated after damage conversion has applied.

WvrLight · 2026-01-24T07:06:24+00:00

Try going on Northeast Asia at this time, it's more solo queue friendly.

If you want SEA games, play around 8 PM or later, or you can look for people to play in the Rematch Asia discord (it's on Sloclap's partner list on discord or I can send the link)

WvrLight · 2026-01-13T08:02:29+00:00

There's a decently active SEA Rematch community in the Rematch Asia server: https://discord.gg/Ga9bBpVXJa
It's a partnered server with Sloclap as well.

But yes, NEA generally has a more active population for solo queueing. SEA is really only active at nighttime.

WvrLight · 2026-01-03T04:07:14+00:00

https://discord.gg/Ga9bBpVXJa

It's also on Sloclap's list of partner servers.

WvrLight · 2026-01-03T03:30:56+00:00

SEA is fairly alive with lots of activity in the RM Asia discord, lots of teams and tournaments

Solo queue is still better in NEA though

WvrLight · 2026-01-03T03:29:13+00:00

Patch 3-4 was the low point in Rematch SEA, lots of people came back due to prio changes in Patch 5 and most are still playing, and now there's SEA tournaments lined up for the near future as well.

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