Icy Burst Summoner - mahjerion/Craft-to-Exile-Dissonance GitHub Wiki

Updated for 2.16.3

Table of Contents

  1. Primer
  2. Stats
  3. Masteries
  4. Talent Tree
  5. Equipment
  6. What To Do After

Primer

Author: Mahj

This build abuses your summons' ability to trigger on-attack effects such as Arctic Breath and Soul Shred. Frozen (Ocean) and Chilled (Unholy) effects scale off of Frost damage, Chilled and Soul Shred scale off DoT, and Soul Shred and Magic Burst (Ocean) scale off of Magic Shield. As such, this build utilizes a lot of Frost Damage, DoT Damage, and Magic Shield.

From Level 1-20 (Pre-Soul Shred)

Put one point into Chilling Touch, you'll only be using this for the second synergy to control your summons. You'll get zombies at level 5, and everything will become smooth sailing from here. Summons are great for tanking for you, and can even apply a slowing DoT and heal you.

Primary Damage Source

  • Summon Zombies + Soul Shred
  • Eventually Arctic Blast + Magic Burst
  • DoTs

Defensive Mechanism

  • Pure Magic Shield
  • Harmony Talent
  • Magic Shield Healing Abilties

Stats

You want the following core stats:

  • Intelligence
  • Wisdom

I usually do a ~2:1 ratio. You may need to adjust for equipment stat requirements.

And you'll want to look for:

  • Magic Shield
  • Spell Damage
  • Frost Damage/Penetration (Spell or All)
  • Cooldown/Faster Cast
  • Magic Shield Regen
  • DoT Damage

Masteries

  • Primary: Unholy
  • Secondary: Ocean

You want to specialize in Unholy for Summon Zombies. Start with a single point in Chilling Touch. We only want this spell for the second synergy which upon dealing damage, makes our summons target the enemy that was hit. You will want at least one point in Unholy Meditation as it helps tremendously with sustain. Once you hit 5-6, put a point into Summon Zombies and Chilled (passive), then when you can, max out its synergies.

Grab Soul Shred and max it out ASAP when you can. This is your bread and butter. From this point on, you will want to pour your points into the Ocean Mastery to grab Frost Blade (affects your summons) and Arctic Breath (the second half of the bread and butter).

Any spare points should go into Spirit Shroud and Summon Zombies. You'll want to prioritize Spirit Shroud > Frost Shield > Summon Zombies. You'll be relying on Spirit Shroud and Frost Shield for a very hefty boost to Magic Shield. Try to get enough cooldown to have Frost Shield up almost 100% of the time. Once the first two are maxed and Summon Zombies is close to max level, start pumping points into Magic Burst. This is a low cooldown spell that does a ton of damage, but you can really only grab it once you have enough Magic Shield sustain.

After level 80, you'll probably want to grab Summon Skeletal Army!

Level 50 Unholy + Ocean Trees

50 trees

Level 80 Unholy + Ocean Trees

80 trees

Talent Tree

  • We start with the left side instead of the top because routing around the top left is easier from this position. You could also start on the top and take the spell damage branch too.
  • We want to take advantage of the Frost perk clusters, Spell Damage clusters, and Magic Shield clusters.
  • If you're not going for crits, Power Overwhelming is a must-have.
  • Don't grab Arcane Devotion until you have a solid amount of Magic Shield to make it worth it.
  • You can optionally take Mana Battery if you feel you have enough Mana. This would increase your eHP greatly if you have the resources to do so.
  • If you're having trouble with survivability early on, you could grab Magical Life instead of Harmony which will make healing easier.

Level 50 Talent Tree

50 talent tree

Level 80 Talent Tree

80 talent tree

Equipment

  • You basically just want to look for Magic Shield stats, Mana, and Spell/Frost Damage stats. You can also try to find Cooldown Reduction, Faster Cast Rate, and DoT stats!
  • Some notable early-game uniques that help with this build (if you can get your hands on them): Amulet of Mental Fortitude and Bated Breath.
  • If you can find a good item base, Magic [Ano + Mos] is a great Runeword that provides Spell Damage and Magic Shield.

What To Do After

This build does really well in the late game. Don't skimp out on resistances and keep stacking the same stats. In the late game, you definitely want a lot of Cooldown Reduction for your zombies.