The majority of feedback I’ve seen on the Hail of Verglas Helm has been negative. Frankly I don’t know why.
Although I’m only paragon 20, I ran T1 last night with 300 armor and this helm using Ice Shards. Even being extremely under geared and not fully setup for an ice shard build, frankly I was quite impressed with the spread given.
Using Avalanche key passive giving 30% mana cost reduction and 60% increased damage paired with the Aspect of Frozen Memories giving and additional 30% decrease mana cost for frost skill and increased vulnerable damage; I was pleasantly surprised by damage output both single target and mobs.
Now to continue the journey to see if this opinion holds through.
Update: Still appearing strong at T2 and pit level 20 tonight. Clearly I can run it higher, but didn’t push tonight. Will do so more tomorrow. Starting to think it may clear T4 without a major effort.
Update 2: UPDATE: Still working on this build, maxroll(dot)gg/d4/planner/hp2d00a3
Pit 50 with around 3 minutes left as the glyphs are still too low in the present state. Seems I will need to push them to legendary before too long…
Tried the build in eternal with much higher glyphs, high 50’s to low 60 on one. Cleared pit 50 around 5 minutes. I did eternal because I wanted a test without boss powers from the season.
Right now I see no reason why I won’t run T4 with this build after fine tuning.
I dont like the spread, was hoping it was going to be a sort of rapid fire shotgun grouping but its like 7 shards shot from a firing squad…and it has the same burst rifle sound pattern as the original lol idk, being needlessly picky there probably.
The main reason its not viewed positively, i suspect, is the incredibly high opportunity cost in late game ie helm of perdition/shako. It might not be too far behind perdition competitively speaking tho. I expect it beats shako in numbers but shako isnt really used for raw damage.
That is what I am looking forward to finding out. I agree helm was a poor design choice for a new unique on Sorc. That I also am suspect why many don’t play meteor.
Personally I love the play style of pure cold Sorc, I hope for blizzard to be a solid support this season yes I have hope full aware of high chance of potential let down. So I can only continue that road and see what results are…
One thing id like to ask you is, do you notice unintended or unexpected results from the class itself when using the helmet?
Example: Axial conduit ‘modifies’ chain lightning behavior after the first hit; some side effects are that the greater chain lightning morph (10% x more damage per hit, up to 30%) is bugged and has no effect (or it did last patch, havent tested this patch yet) Same with the aspect that adds additional bounces (lightning rod works fine though)
Im curious as to, does greater ice shards (50% dmg with barrier), piercing cold ect still work properly
Edit: i will test it as well when i get another one to drop but just curious
I can better answer that one after tonight when I play again.
I just got the helm, thanks to a friend last night; as you can see I’m currently 300 armor with sub 40% resistance in T1. I played the helm about 15 minutes before having to retire for the evening.
The only thing I notice is there are frequently more than 3 shards coming from the helm. I don’t think it is the low chance I have to cast twice as I often see 9 plus. Also found attacking from a distance seems to give a bit more hit power then close range…
Using both reworked avalanche and aspect of frozen memories I can use shards as primary and not worry about mana consumption or regeneration even with tapping blizzard for spike damage.
Ye the damage increase is very noticeable.
Im using just measly 750one without mastercrafted skill ups and it moved me up a torment level just by equiping it.
It randmly goes to old spread before latest fix idk why. Some bug. And you can clearly see why they fixes it like this because witht he old spread it would be useless. I think they should just leave the old machinegun effect but add two more beams on the sides and make the item on boots or legs…because the biggest issue with it its that it is a helmet.
Its a powerful item but the mythic uniques it competes with will be a big hit to a build if you dont have those. Idk…so far i like it but i obviously dont have perd/shaco yet so i cannot compare.
That was my experience with it too. Also using a 750 without master master crafting.
Next up, I’m going to try the new frost burn gloves adding hydra. Quite the unique effect with increased cold to burning and increased burning to chilled.
I will see what impact it is compared to shako or perdition. Typically I’ve used shako over perdition due to 4 to all skills. Slower kill rate but was a good trade-off for my build with 4 to all skills.
Im having lots of fun with a ice shards build this season. Blasted through pit 20 with freshly dinged lvl 60. I am missing tons of BiS gear for my build. I tend to ignore meta build / maxroll tier list recommanditon for specs and just build a spec I enjoy playing. Cant wait till I get my hands on the helm. But yeah it really is stupid to put the new legendary as a head slot…
A lil update on this.
Ive progressed in the game a bit. Got the helmet 800 but only GA for %intel. Still got the ice shard skills mastercrafted to +11. Then ive got starless sky ring and that mastercrafter core skills to +6(actualy first time ever since starting this game ive got legendary mastercraft on an stat that i wanted pog). So im now sitting at 22 rank shards. Capped crit, attack speed, 5 legendary glyphs, every piece of gear is atleast 1 star 12/12. Every shard hits up to a 130-140M, boss power hitting for 500M. Torment 3 almost oneshotting everything that can be onetapped. T4 dungeons on farm.
But the bosses in T4 idk man if they buffed them or what is the actual ratio of hp increase for lair bosses going t3-t4. Im doing literaly 10x damage than i did previous season and still atm it feels like its around 10 000% hp increase. Two minutes of runing around the trashcan grigory to get him from p1. Im starting to get a bit sceptical about my build or about ice shard sorc in general. I have low lvl glyphs still but other than that idk where to get more power to even atempt more challenging bosses than the “use 12 to open the chest” ones.
So ye. What about you? Still having fun? I mean it is a fun build…but it feels like limited one so far.
Yeah, scaling is more aggressive this patch. My idea of acceptable t4 ready dmg was def lowballed. Getting reoriented but planning things out is still a bit speculative for sure.
I prefer ice sorc… but the unique head slot just blows. That being said… I’m doing the next best thing. I got a shako (CD reduction ga) and tyrael’s (max resist ga) drop yesterday and have been running an incinerate build. Currently rank 14 spell and still waiting on starless ring. Resists are capped at 85%.
I’m running the stand still/take no damage runes paired with the nova/war cry runes. End result is near constant 15% damage buff with an endless spam of frost novas. Ice/Flame shield CDs are less than 10 sec each… Inferno is less than 20… nova enchant paired with familiars leads to more novas. Like I said… endless frozen/vulnerable enemies.
Paragon 128 with 3 glyphs at 15 and MWs at 4/12. (LOL) Farming all T2 bosses and unlocked T3 earlier and have a few kills. My first 55 Pit attempt I made the end boss with 3 mins left and missed the timer… so gonna do a bit more farming to unlock T4… level up glyphs, MWs… etc.
I like the WD boss power… that death beam is sick. 50% more chill modifier from Beast just leads to more frozen enemies.
I played Fireball in S6… and totally wanted to do ice shards for S8… but don’t know if that’s gonna happen. I feel pretty good about this incinerate/ice build I’m rocking. I’ve come a long way with so much farming still to do.
because 1) it makes it hard to hit anything that is not sufficiently fat with 5 shards in one cast to inflict vulnerable and that either takes away an aspect, an affix or 2, or locks you into using azurewrath 2)it is a helm that has to compete with shako and perdition
Otherwise, sure, i am using it too (im just at t2)
I’m doing ice shard/blizzard this season. Currently all glyphs below 30. Last pit run was 35 in around 5. The build is paired with just Iceheart, using Talrasha’s and a regular ring (no starless yet)… Put on blue rose tonight just as I ended playing so will see what that does tomorrow.
The build is constant ice shards from frozen and dying monsters throwing more frost nova. Rarely do I need to trigger it. With the avalanche key passive and the new aspect of frozen memories there is constant full mana for everything I throw. Using beast power for chill and choose Grigore’s as the main, tossed in ashava to throw in poison, and blackmailer’s sabotage for barrier on top of fortify.
I can confirm ice shards sorc is actually a lot of fun. After working on masterworking and glyphs I have little issues in T4.
I did spend longer in T3 then I usually do. My resistance is maxed and my armor is around 950. I’ve found the mind aspect on the boots that gives me a constant barrier a game changer. Really great aspect. I do recognize I won’t be doing super super damage though
I’ve got elements on my ammy and currently testing Conceited, shivering, and storm swell on my ring. Not sure yet which does the most damage
to open the chest” ones.