[3.27] Cold Snap of Power Build, Permafreeze, 2m to 100m+ DPS

Hey guys,

I'm sharing you an interesting build using Cold Snap of Power. Here's a quick overview:

Pros
+ Permafreeze on first hit
+ Maximum shock effect on first hit
+ DPS highly scalable to the moon (over 100m DPS)
+ Safe to play as a range
+ Petrified Blood + life recoup for QOL
+ Flexible on gear
+ The budget version is good enough to clear all maps
+ Can do most map content effortlessly
+ Doable as Occultist and Hierophant

Cons
- Cannot start with cold snap of power
- Requires active aiming
- Requires active playing
- Not tanky for very juiced maps
- Weak to dot because of petrified blood
- Expensive to scale

POB

https://pobb.in/1yrNGV_Twqox

I've included many loadouts selectable in the top right dropbox of the application. I insist, use loadouts to load skills + items + tree in one click.

How does it work?

Cold Snap of Power doesn’t have an AoE effect like regular Cold Snap, but it can ignore its cooldown by consuming a Power Charge. This means that as long as we’re generating Power Charges, we can continuously cast CSoP. The gem itself provides a key modifier: 30% chance to gain a Power Charge on Critical Strike.

To make this build work, we need to meet two conditions:
- Have a 100% chance to gain a Power Charge on Critical Strike
- Have at least 98% Critical Strike Chance excluding Power Charges crit calculation

The best way to achieve 100% chance to gain a Power Charge on crit is by using:

A Cold Snap of Power (Level 20, +18% Quality) — 48% chance
A Power Charge on Critical Support (Level 20) — 52% chance

Combining these gives us a guaranteed 100% chance to gain a Power Charge on Critical Strike.

To reach 100% crit rate, I use the Critical Strikes Support gem, critical modifiers on gear, and several passive skills. It’s important to have 100% (or at least 98%) crit chance before any Power Charges are active, since each Power Charge adds a flat 5% crit chance. The build needs nearly 100% crit rate to avoid bad rng. The last thing you want is to be stuck waiting for a cooldown in front of a pinnacle boss! ;)

Once these two conditions are met, the build becomes almost spammable. Why almost? Because mana will quickly become an issue, especially when using a 6-link setup. I completely solve the mana problem by using Eldritch Battery combined with Energy Shield leech from a single passive point. This does reduce the effective HP but it’s the best tradeoff for this build.

How do we scale the damage?

- Maximum Power Charges
- Cast Speed
- Critical Damage multiplier
- Cold/Elemental Damage
- Archdemon Crown

My favorite scaling method is cast speed as it’s a common suffix on most gear. It’s also common to encounter rare monsters with spell or critical resistance, and having very high cast speed can brute force through those nasty mods.

Stacking Power Charges is effective but it can be extremely expensive to buy items with implicit mod "+1 Maximum Power Charges".

The most effective damage scaling is the archdemon crown with influenced shaper+elder mods. At worst it acts as a 5L helm, at best as a 9L helm. I'll give more details on this helm below.

About Petrified Blood

Why am I using this skill which reserves 30% mana and keeps my life below 55%?
The main reason is that it grants permanent Pain Attunement which is one of the best scaler. Why is that? Because it directly multiplies the base damage of the skill instead of being added to a final multiplier (does it make sense to you?).
Despite being low life, PB actually increases the effective HP according to POB. In practice, it's a lifesaver when hit by multiple projectiles or being overwhelmed by many monsters. It gives room to drink a potion after taking a heavy hit. With 30% Life Recoup, the damage over time from petrified blood is also fully mitigated. A great synergy of defensive and offensive mechanics.
To achieve low life, I'm using Arrogance support on Vaal Arctic Armour. A lv21 Arrogance has a life cost at 200% reservation. Arctic Armour has a base cost of 25% mana converted to 50% life with lv21 Arrogance. With mana reservation efficiency nodes on my POB, it is lowered close to 45% life meaning I can use life mastery "low life at 55%". That extra life is always good for suvivability.
Arctic Armour gives extra eHP while being stationnary, very handy for a lot of content (rituals, etc). The Vaal skill of Arctic Armour is an anti one shot skill. Its 3 sec duration is short so it has to be timed right.

How to level up?

Freezing Pulse is fine for all acts. +Arcane Surge for more dps and mana regen. +Unbound Ailment for permafreeze ;) +Elemental Proliferation for QoL.
Frostblink for movement.
Shield Charge + Faster Attacks for movement as well (needs a shield obviously).
Low level Clarity Aura.
Determination or Purity of Elements Aura (elemental immunity is better imo).
+1 cold skill wand.
Quicksilver flask.

POB Loadouts in details

The first loadout:
Budget build
2.6m DPS, lv80, 6L, 75 res
Cost: 15 chaos of items found in poe trade including cold snap of power +16
Amulet anoint: none
Uniques: Inya's boots for QoL

The cheapest version of this build covering everything needed, 100% crit, 100% power charges uptime. Some QoL. Mapping Ready.
Other gems aren't counted in the total cost as I suggest you to buy them from Lilly in your hideout (or act6) and level them up in Blood Aqueduct for instance or white maps.

The second loadout:
Advanced build
6.7m DPS, lv90, 6L, 75 res
Cost: 250+ chaos
Amulet anoint: Whisper of Doom (3 golden oils)
Uniques: Replica Dragonfang's Flight added with 7% reservation or more required.

A huge step up as the dps is more than doubled sitting at a confortable 6.7m DPS thanks to the unique amulet. But wait, why does POB shows full dps 7.7m DPS? Because I checked in configuration "is the enemy low life?" and this build is using punishment as 2nd curse thanks to the anointment Whisper of Doom. So I did a cheap dps estimation using (DPS with low life + DPS not low life) / 2.
Fully automated flasks are integrated and counted in for the dps. Simple upgrade and worth every chaos invested! Some respec is needed.

The third loadout:
Final build
31.2m DPS, lv95, 7L, 77 res
Cost: Over 25d in bought and self crafted items
Currencies required for crafting: Essence of Horror, lifeforces for elemental resistance swapping
Amulet anoint: Whisper of Doom
Uniques: Watcher's eye (double zealotry), Forbidden Flesh/Flame (Frigid Wake), Ralakesh boots

The build I'm currently using. It's not cheap as it requires many div. The most important item is the Archdemon Crown which drastically scales the damage. The one I'm using is a self crafted with "More Elemental Damage" (Essence of Horror) and Shaper Hypothermia affixes. The base cost 1d and the essences were self farmed using scarabs.
The Watcher's eye is a nice addition offering double zealotry mods, cast speed and cold penetration for a few div.
Ralakesh boots are needed to drop the support gem "increased critical strikes" though even with them it isn’t quite enough. To compensate for losing the +2% flat crit chance from the support gem, I'm using a self crafted shaper body armour with a nearly max roll of +1.48% crit. I also adjusted passive skills to maintain 100% crit rate.
I'm using fancy Forbidden jewels for the Frigid Wake notable skill. It's an amazing damage scaler and also lets me swap the Brine King pantheon for Lunaris.
Resistances are very tight so I needed a lot of elemental resistance swapping through horticrafting (Harvest lifeforce). This allows me to search for more items without being locked into one specific elemental resistance (search filter: elemental resistance).
To further scale damage, I replaced spell echo with its awakened version because why not. It adds more cast speed and a 20% chance to double the damage on the repeated hit. Truly awesome. I got mine for 10d this league.
I'm using Phase Run to compensate the low movement of ralakesh boots. If you favour defense, you can replace it with steelskin.

The fourth loadout:
Glass Canon
79m DPS, lv95, 8L, 77 res
Cost: 5-10d for the double influence Shaper/Elder helm

I'm using a dual influence Archdemon Crown with the Elder Concentrated Effect mod. The scaling is insanely high but we loose aoe range. I've replaced the shield with a second sceptre for more dps. I've also disabled some auras to fit in Grace for more cast speed. This is how easily we can scale the damage. It's a silly but effective build that melts pinnacle bosses like the Exarch in seconds. Not for mapping.

The fifth loadout:
Mageblood
60m DPS, lv95, 10L, 77 res
Cost: 300-350d
Uniques: Mageblood, Megalomaniac cluster

This is a very expensive endgame build intended for wealthy players. Flasks are used to boost resistances, crit rate, speed. I've replaced the crit golem with the damage one (Stone Golem). The Megalomaniac cluster provides Culling Strike and Cold Penetration. Since this is an endgame build, I used a very fancy ring base with "+1 Maximum Power Charge" for some basic crafting. I also used a vermillion ring to further boost the life and cap the resistances.
I'm using a Crusader body armour for the explosion effect which is great for mapping. It really shines in heavily populated Blight maps.
The Archdemon Crown used is an expensive one with "Concentrated Effect" and "Increased Area of Effect" to mitigate the aoe penalty of the Elder mod. These typically sell for over 50d.
Since movement speed isn't an issue, I put Steelskin back as the automated skill.
Overall, this is a very zoomy build with pretty high dps for mapping. It's not tanky but you'll mostly one shot anything before being hit.


[3.27] League items

Here are the two grafts I'm using

Hardening Uulgraft: Tender Embrace periodically grants Endurance Charges when you are on Low Life, a perfect match!

Aegis Tulgraft: provides all elemental resistances, cold damage, another great fit! Perserving Stillness provides a defensive buff that absorbs damage. It is essentially a second steelskin on hit. The cooldown is very short giving it higher uptime than steelskin. Truly lifesaving in hot situations.