PoE Builds 3.24: Archmage Ice Nova Hierophant Build

Greetings, fellow exiles! Today we’re diving deep into the Archmage Ice Nova Hierophant, a powerful spellcasting build that leverages mana scaling for both offensive and defensive capabilities. This guide will provide you with everything needed to master this intricate but rewarding playstyle.

This build centers around converting your massive mana pool into devastating cold damage while maintaining exceptional survivability through multiple damage mitigation layers. The Hierophant ascendancy perfectly complements this approach with its mana-focused nodes and totem synergies.

Equipment

Look for These Mods on Rare Items

When hunting for rare gear, prioritize these modifiers in descending order of importance: Elemental Damage to boost your primary damage type, Lightning Damage for additional scaling, and Spell Damage for overall effectiveness. Cast Speed is crucial for smoother gameplay and higher DPS output.

Critical Strike Chance and Critical Multiplier significantly amplify your damage once you’ve established your core setup. Don’t neglect defensive stats – Elemental Resistances are mandatory for survivability, while Life and Mana provide both durability and damage scaling through the Archmage support gem.

Mandatory Uniques

Kitava’s Thirst

This helmet becomes essential because it triggers socketed spells automatically whenever you expend 100 mana in a single cast. This mechanic perfectly synergizes with our Frostbolt setup, creating additional projectiles without manual casting.

Anathema

This ring fundamentally changes how curses work by setting your curse limit equal to your maximum Power Charges. With our typical setup reaching 4 charges, this allows simultaneous application of multiple curses for significant damage amplification.

Recommended Uniques

Loreweave provides excellent all-around stats and maximum resistance caps, making it a strong chest armor choice for endgame content.

Rare Wand

For your Plague Gnarl wand, aim for at least 35% increased cast speed, 80% combined spell and lightning damage, and 80% critical strike chance for spells. Advanced players should seek additional modifiers like added lightning damage to spells or increased critical strike multiplier.

Rare Gloves

Corpse Paw gloves should provide substantial life, additional mana pool, and necessary resistance coverage to cap your elemental defenses.

Recommended Flasks

Divine Life Flask for emergency healing, Quicksilver Flask for mobility, Granite Flask for physical damage reduction, Diamond Flask for critical chance, and Silver Flask for attack and cast speed bonuses.

Gems

Armour

Ice Nova of Frostbolts – Archmage – Spell Echo – Inspiration – Lightning Penetration – Increased Critical Damage

Helmet

Frostbolt – Greater Volley – Elemental Weakness – Enfeeble

Gloves

Arcane Cloak – Automation – Arcane Surge – Increased Duration

Boots

Clarity – Arrogance – Determination – Eternal Blessing

Claw

Frostblink of Wintry Blast – Faster Casting – Sigil of Power

Shield

Assassin’s Mark – Punishment – Arcanist Brand

Jewel

Look for These Mods on Rare Jewels

When selecting rare jewels, prioritize Maximum Life for survivability, Critical Multiplier for damage scaling, Maximum Mana for both offense and defense, and Cast Speed for quality of life improvements.

Watcher’s Eye

Watcher’s Eye Prismatic Jewel: seek at least 18% of damage taken while affected by Clarity is recouped as mana. This provides incredible sustain during prolonged fights.

Unique Jewel

Immutable Force Crimson Jewel: if you encounter stun issues, this jewel with minimum 900% stun recovery effectively solves the problem.

Glorious Vanity Timeless Jewel: this exceptional jewel dramatically enhances your survivability but requires sacrifice in the name of Doryani. This grants the Corrupted Soul keystone, which divides all incoming damage between life and energy shield. Combined with our existing damage division between life and mana, this node makes you significantly more resilient against one-shot mechanics.

Skill Tree

You can examine the complete passive tree through the provided video guide. Key pathing focuses on mana nodes, critical strike chance, spell damage, and necessary life nodes for adequate health pool.

Ascendancy

Pantheon

Major God: Brine King provides freeze immunity and reduced effect of chill

Minor God: Shakari offers poison immunity and reduced chaos damage taken

Leveling

Main Skills

1. Begin with Spark at level 1, transitioning to Arc upon reaching level 12. Start incorporating Arc Totems once you obtain the Ancestral Bond node in your passive tree, usually around level 52. At level 74, completely respec your tree and transition to the Archmage Ice Nova setup.

2. For first-time characters: Create a Witch character, reach the initial town (approximately 5 minutes), purchase Spark from Nessa, then store your wand containing Spark and Arcane Surge gems in your shared stash.

3. Now create your Templar; use Glacial Hammer until reaching the first town where you can retrieve your pre-stashed wand.

4. At level 8, incorporate Added Lightning Damage support.

5. Upon reaching level 10, activate Clarity for enhanced mana regeneration.

6. At level 12, replace Spark with Arc as your primary damage skill.

7. Also at level 12, consider adding Arc Totems for supplementary damage. Remember that your main skill remains self-cast Arc, with totems serving as additional damage sources.

8. Reach level 16 and activate Summon Skitterbots for both damage amplification and defensive utility through chill and shock effects.

9. At level 18, swap Arcane Surge for Faster Casting and include Elemental Focus in your main links.

10. Simultaneously at level 18, replace Added Lightning Damage with Faster Casting and Elemental Focus in your totem configuration.

11. Upon reaching level 38, exchange Faster Casting with Spell Echo for significantly improved casting efficiency.

12. When you acquire the Ancestral Bond node (typically level 52), equip Soul Mantle and implement the corresponding setup. Always pair Soul Mantle with Kikazaru rings to counteract the curse penalties.

13. At level 74, link Clarity with Arrogance and Determination with Eternal Blessing. This configuration keeps your mana pool maximized for optimal Archmage damage scaling.

14. Upon hitting level 74, respec your passive tree completely and equip all necessary endgame items. You’re now prepared to dominate map content with your fully realized Archmage Ice Nova build.

15. Remember to establish your Frostbolt and curse configurations within Kitava’s Thirst helmet.

Leveling Items

Tabula Rasa

Goldrim

Lochtonial

Wanderlust

Lifesprig

Axiom Perpetuum

Praxis

Replica Prismweave

Cerberus Limb

Soul Mantle

Kikazaru

Singularity

Conclusion

This concludes our comprehensive Archmage Ice Nova Hierophant build guide. I’m delighted to hear you’re finding this resource valuable! Should you have additional questions or require further clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out. May your journey through Wraeclast be both prosperous and exhilarating!

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