Path of Exile - Glacial Cascade Inquisitor

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Charoth404
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Sat Dec 09, 2017 11:38 am

Greetings dear reader,

Since the community voted for this build, I decided to write this guide for an updated 3.1 Glacial Cascade (GC) Inquisitor. The build is supposed to be a critical strike build, but can be leveled as non-crit before transitioning.

Disclaimer
I spent some time on this, but it is by no means perfect. It should be good enough to clear most, if not all, content as long as you have decent items.
Keep in mind that Essence Worm might be hard to get in SSF and while you can play this version of the build without it, the power of this ring cannot be underestimated.

Skill trees

These trees are the final version you should aim towards, but feel free to pick up more damage or life nodes as well as +30 Dex nodes when needed. The order of allocation doesn't really matter, just be sure to pick up sufficient life nodes along the way.

Bandits Act 2: Help Alira (if non-crit, kill all)

Critical Strike Version

Non-crit tree
Non-Crit Version

About Glacial Cascade
Glacial cascade is a physical damage spell that converts (partially) to cold damage. With two threshold jewels, this means you'll be dealing 100% cold damage. This damage is scaled by both physical% and cold% damage, giving you a lot of options to improve your damage.

Mitigation comes in the form of Mind Over Matter, Fortify and flask usage. Most enemies will be frozen thanks to the combination of cold damage + crit. For bosses we use Decoy Totem to taunt them away from us, while greatly reducing their accuracy with Stibnite Flask when needed. Warlord's Mark generates endurance charges for extra mitigation and gives you some life and mana leech.

Gem links

The following links are the backbone of the build. You can add stuff like Cast When Damage taken or a Golem in your spare gem sockets.

6L Glacial Cascade - Spell Echo - Added Fire - Increased Critical Strikes - Increased Critical Damage - Increased Area of Effect / Concentrated Effect

4L Herald of Ice - Curse on Hit - Warlord's Mark - Clarity

4L Orb of Storms - Power Charge on Critical Strike - Arcane Surge - Increased Critical Strikes / Culling Strike

1L Hatred (Essence Worm)

1L Decoy Totem (Anywhere)

3L Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Must-have gear

The Essence Worm ring lets you use the Hatred aura for a massive damage boost without reserving too much mana. This way you can effectively use the Mind Over Matterpassive keystone for mitigation without having to worry about reserving too much mana. If you don't have this ring yet, you may want to wait with picking up Mind Over Matter. Getting this ring should be your top priority though.

The Long Winter is the threshold jewel for Glacial Cascade. You probably want to use two of these to get 100% physical conversion to cold as well as giving GC more area coverage. It's a brand new jewel from 3.1 so we'll see how effective it truly is.

Flasks

I suggest the following three utility flasks. Make sure you have bleed and curse removal for endgame.

Diamond Flask (crit) or Sulphur Flask (non-crit)
Basalt Flask
Quicksilver Flask

Endgame gear

The following items are expensive and are by no means must-have, but they are very strong for this build.

Doryani's Catalyst has everything you need. Elemental damage, cast speed and critical strike chance to boost your DPS. It also has attack speed and is a scepter, which lets you use Shield Charge to move around. The item is fairly expensive and can be replaced by a Rare scepter or dagger.
Taste of Hate helps mitigate physical damage and gives you a good damage boost on top. Use this instead of the Basalt flask. Very expensive.
Cloak of Defiance grants a lot of mana and mana regeneration to help sustain Mind over Matter.
Carcass Jack increases your Area of Effect as well as giving a decent damage boost, life and resists.
Belly of the Beast is insane for your survivability, giving you up to 40% increased maximum life. Colouring this body armour will be very difficult though so I wouldn't recommend this one for starters.
Do note: a good rare Energy Shield (hybrid) body armour with life and resists is totally fine to use.

The rest of your gear can be anything, as long as you stack enough resistances to be capped. Make sure you have enough +LIfe on your gear as well.

Other options

Don't care for critical strikes or shield charging around? Pledge of Hands gives you a possible 7-link as well as a lot of spell damage. The increased mana is great for Mind Over Matter!
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Kleinnix
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Sat Dec 09, 2017 12:11 pm

https://www.pathofexile.com/build/9NW4fw and use the build from the vote but use the Carcass Jack as main armor
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hubbiewubie
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Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:08 am

thank you!
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GENFRiX
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Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:39 am

time to get back on PoE now...
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Frantic_Cajun
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Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:35 pm

[QUOTE="Kleinnix, post: 51771, member: 1163"]https://www.pathofexile.com/build/9NW4fw and use the build from the vote but use the Carcass Jack as main armor[/QUOTE]
Did you test this? Idk which route I want to take. I'm seeing multiple ways to go about leveling. Thanks
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Charoth404
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Sat Dec 16, 2017 7:31 am

[QUOTE="mitchthev, post: 52008, member: 74693"]Did you test this? Idk which route I want to take. I'm seeing multiple ways to go about leveling. Thanks[/QUOTE]

You have no reliable way to get leech unless you sacrifice a support gem, so I would not recommend Vaal Pact myself. Just my opinion though.
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Frantic_Cajun
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Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:46 pm

[QUOTE="Kaboom_Crazypants, post: 52071, member: 61493"]You have no reliable way to get leech unless you sacrifice a support gem, so I would not recommend Vaal Pact myself. Just my opinion though.[/QUOTE]
I'm torn on which build to use. Theres a few I'm finding online but they are all different
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Sadies_human
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Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:58 pm

Hey
First time playing POE and getting whooped. Level 70, resists are fire 139, cold 147, lightning 92. Trying tier 3 and 4 maps. Any thing i should be doing differently. DPS 4000 glacial cascade. Unable to complete Abyss spawn, Int 309, Str 149, Dex 148. Any ideas would be great
Pruuner
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an0nr3b3l
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Sun Feb 04, 2018 4:09 pm

Been using this build since new league on Xbox and I'm loving it! Only my second character ever and it's so easy to learn and effective with decent gear. Just wish I had ppl to map with...
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an0nr3b3l
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Sun Feb 04, 2018 4:15 pm

[QUOTE="pruuner, post: 55193, member: 111782"]Hey
First time playing POE and getting whooped. Level 70, resists are fire 139, cold 147, lightning 92. Trying tier 3 and 4 maps. Any thing i should be doing differently. DPS 4000 glacial cascade. Unable to complete Abyss spawn, Int 309, Str 149, Dex 148. Any ideas would be great[/QUOTE]
Without looking at your gear, I can tell you that maybe your spell damage needs to be raised and elemental damage is always good. Critical chance and multipliers I look for as well.
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Sadies_human
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Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:49 pm

[QUOTE="an0nr3b3l, post: 55217, member: 117852"]Without looking at your gear, I can tell you that maybe your spell damage needs to be raised and elemental damage is always good. Critical chance and multipliers I look for as well.[/QUOTE]
Thanks
Pruuner
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Thief2K
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Fri Mar 02, 2018 6:03 am

Kaboom_Crazypants I loved this guide you made, and if I got more time I would have gone to Shaper.
So I want to ask you will you make another guide for 3.2? :D
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RavenIceguard
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Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:59 pm

Can anyone tell me if this build still viable? Or are there any other self cast Glacial Cascade builds anyone can recommend. I really like the effect of it after seeing Cohh play this. Thanks!
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Samantca
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Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:44 pm

I will let you know RavenIceguard, i am leveling this build right now because i loved it so much last season. I don't think that much has changed though so it should still be good :)
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RavenIceguard
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Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:55 pm

[QUOTE="Samantca, post: 57255, member: 123612"]I will let you know RavenIceguard, i am leveling this build right now because i loved it so much last season. I don't think that much has changed though so it should still be good :) [/QUOTE]
Thanks Samantca!
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