Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant - Path of Exile 3.24

The introduction of Transfigured Gems in the previous league has certainly shaken up the core of Path of Exile, especially with the many build varieties that were possible as a result of these new gems.

Now that a full league has passed, Grinding Gear Games has made some interesting changes, particularly to one support gem: Archmage Support. Since this support gem no longer requires you to spend insane mana to deal equal amounts of damage, it has spawned many interesting combinations.

Today, we are going to talk about a build that uses a cold gem, but you scale it by raising your lightning damage in any way you can.

So, if you are interested, strap in! This is our ultimate build guide for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

This build utilizes various mechanics to make it work. First off, let’s talk about the star of the show, which is the Archmage Support. This is a support gem in Path of Exile that has received a very interesting change in Patch 3.24.

Previously, Archmage Support required you to spend a ton of mana, where 75% of that is given to you as added lightning damage. Because of this requirement, only certain builds that are capable of unloading exorbitant amounts of mana can use this support gem to great effect.

Fast forward to the Necropolis League and the support gem has been re-adjusted. This time, it still grants you added lightning damage, but you no longer have to use mana to avail of that. Instead, the damage bonus you gain is equal to 19% of your unreserved maximum mana!

Due to this modification, you can now use Archmage Support regardless of whether you are using a lightning-based skill gem or not.

Having said that, the build we are going to talk about today actually takes advantage of the support gem, albeit it uses a cold-based spell skill gem called the Ice Nova of Frostbolts to deal damage.

This transfigured version of Ice Nova enables you to cast it directly on Frostbolt projectiles, which means that you need to use the Frostbolt skill gem as well.

Now, using Frostbolt manually is indeed cumbersome. However, some talented people have come up with a way to automate this part of the process. So, aside from the aforementioned skill gems, you will also need Kitava’s Thirst.

Kitava’s Thirst is a unique helmet in PoE that triggers a socketed spell after spending at least 100 mana upfront. Do not worry about the mana cost part of this helmet. That is because Archmage Support increases the mana cost of Ice Nova of Frostbolts just enough for you to take advantage of its unique effect.

The downside of using Kitava’s Thirst is that it reduces your cast speed by 15%. This is the reason why you are going to use a couple of Profane Wands for their inherent cast speed implicit modifier, as well as the ability to roll cast speed as an explicit modifier.

What’s interesting about this build is that even though you are utilizing a cold spell skill gem, you are scaling damage by increasing lightning damage wherever possible. This means that if you want to bring out the best of what this build can offer, you will look for the following modifiers on your gear:

• Added Lightning Damage to Spells

• Increased Lightning Damage

• Increased Spell Damage

• Increased Cast Speed

• Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells

• + to Critical Strike Multiplier

• Gain % of Lightning Damage as Extra Chaos Damage

How about defenses? Well, the build is actually quite tanky. One of the ways you can improve your survivability is by taking Mind Over Matter. This keystone passive makes 40% of the damage you take reduce mana before life. This effect is further enhanced by the Hierophant’s Divine Guidance notable passive skill.

Next, is the Corrupted Soul. This is another keystone passive that can only appear if you socket the Glorious Vanity jewel (Doryani) onto one of the jewel slots on the passive tree. That said, what Corrupted Soul does is that 50% of the non-chaos damage you take will bypass your energy shield. On the surface, you might think that it is a downside, but that is actually not the case.

To illustrate why Corrupted Soul is a good thing, every time you take damage, your energy shield gets depleted first. Once this defensive layer has been exhausted, your life and mana will obviously be reduced next.

With Corrupted Soul, half of the damage you take reduces your energy shield as per usual, but the other half will be distributed to your life (25%) and mana (25%). This equal distribution aids in your survival because, then, you will have enough time to recoup just by continuously hitting enemies with Ice Nova of Frostbolts.

Speaking of recoup, there are multiple avenues you can recoup mana by taking damage. You could get the Mana Mastery that allows you to recoup mana based on 10% of the damage you take. Besides that, you can anoint “Battle Rouse” for another 10% mana recoup. And, you can purchase the Watcher’s Eye jewel with the mod: “% of Damage Taken While Affected by Clarity Recouped as Mana.”

Another layer of defense is Arcane Cloak. This particular guard skill not only gives you a buff that soaks damage equal to the mana you spend by casting it, but it grants added lighting damage as well!

As you can see, this build is pretty well-rounded both in terms of offense and defense. But, because this has gained popularity in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, you should expect that the necessary items will cost considerable amounts of PoE currency to obtain.

Playstyle

So how is the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant played? Despite its many mechanics, the build is actually very fun and easy to use.

When you enter a new map, search the area by casting Frostblink of Wintry Blast. The cool thing about this movement skill is that, unlike its base version, it does not have a cooldown when cast manually. It does have a cast time, which you can circumvent by increasing your cast speed as high as you possibly can.

Once you encounter huge packs of monsters, simply cast Ice Nova of Frostbolts and everything will be set in motion! Kitava’s Thirst will trigger Frostbolt and the Ice Nova of Frostbolts is going to be cast wherever the resulting projectiles are on the battlefield.

When you face tougher enemies like pinnacle bosses, lay down your Sigil of Power and stay within its area of effect as you spam your damaging abilities. By doing so, you will gain physical damage reduction, as well as a small damage boost for the duration of the sigil.

In addition, use Arcanist Brand on them to weaken their defenses and make them so much easier to kill.

Ascendancy

As with any mana-stacking builds in Path of Exile, the only ascendancy class that you really need to pay attention to is the Hierophant. It might not be as damaging as the Inquisitor early on, but this class certainly excels in the mid- to end-game, especially when you are able to wear the items necessary for this build to work.

Arcane Blessing is a pretty awesome node because it gives you the ability to gain the effects of Arcane Surge by just hitting enemies with your spells. Arcane Surge, in case you do not know, is a temporary buff that provides you with a 10% increased cast speed and a 30% increased mana regeneration. What’s more, the buff is enhanced by this notable ascendancy passive skill as Arcane Surge grants you 20% more spell damage as well!

Divine Guidance is where everything starts to become interesting for this build. This notable ascendancy passive skill grants you a 30% increased maximum mana, which means that every mod that provides you with a flat amount of mana will give you even more! On top of that, this node has a similar effect to Mind Over Matter, where 10% of the damage you receive is taken from your mana before life. It does not end there! Divine Guidance also gives you Transfiguration of Mind. If you are curious as to what it does, it reads: “Increases and Reductions to Maximum Mana Also Apply to Damage at 30% of Their Value.” In other words, you gain even more damage simply by stacking your maximum mana as high as you can!

Sanctuary of Thought, in our opinion, is one of the best notable ascendancy passive skills in the entire game. Why? Because it provides you with heaps of advantages for just one node! First of all, it grants you extra energy shield based on 20% of your maximum mana. Let’s say you have 7,000 maximum mana, you get an additional 1,400 energy shield thanks to Sanctuary of Thought! Next, you gain up to 100% increased AoE for every 50 points of unreserved maximum mana. This is beneficial for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts because the nova itself actually scales with increased an area of effect. And oh, did we mention that Sanctuary of Thought makes you spend 50% less mana when casting spells as well?

Conviction of Power is taken as the last node for this build. This notable ascendancy passive increases your critical strike chance and physical damage reduction by allowing you to enjoy the effects of four Power Charges and Endurance Charges at all times. Not only that but this node also increases your Maximum Power Charges and Endurance Charges by one! This actually synergizes really well with one of the rings that you are going to wear for the build. Do not worry, it will be discussed in far greater detail in the appropriate section of this build guide.

If you have the PoE currency, you have the option of purchasing the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with either the “Augury of Penitence” or “Inevitable Judgement” as their matching modifier. The former makes nearby enemies take 16% increased elemental damage, while the latter ignores monster elemental resistances when you land a critical strike using Ice Nova of Frostbolts.

Notable Ascendancy Passive Skills for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant

Leveling

When you are still starting out, use Rolling Magma as your primary spell until you reach level 38. This is a pretty strong spell skill gem early on and it gives you a feel for how projectiles work in Path of Exile.

At level 38, you can transition to Ball Lightning. When cast, you fire a slow-moving projectile that continuously damages nearby enemies with bolts of lightning. The way this projectile moves is quite similar to Frostbolt, thus giving you an idea of how you can maximize the Ice Nova of Frostbolts whenever you are going to use it early on.

To supplement your leveling journey, you can make use of two other skill gems – the Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall. The Holy Flame Totem grants you the ability to drop a totem that will damage enemies with a stream of fiery projectiles. 

On the other hand, Flame Wall lets you conjure up to three flaming walls around your area. What’s interesting about them is that you can fire your Rolling Magma or Ball Lightning projectiles through them and, in doing so, grant these skills additional fire damage as a result!

It is important to note that careful placement of the Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall is key to maximizing your damage output. Do not just use them willy-nilly if you want to slay enemies with incredible efficiency!

When you transition to using Ball Lightning, you can swap the Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall with Orb of Storms. This lightning spell skill gem conjures an electrical orb that strikes enemies with beams of lightning, with each beam hitting additional targets in the process.

Ideally, cast Orb of Storms first to take advantage of the supplemental damage it can bring to the table, and then use Ball Lightning to finish off the enemies that you see on the screen.

In terms of defenses, you want to keep looking at your character’s stats and make sure that your elemental resistances are sorted out. Equipping a Ruby Ring (Fire Resistance), Sapphire Ring (Cold Resistance), and Topaz Ring (Lightning Resistance) can aid you in that, in addition to your other pieces of gear that can roll elemental resistance.

For your buffs, Purity of Elements not only grants you additional elemental resistances, but it also gives you full immunity to elemental ailments, thus greatly improving your survivability. Elemental ailments, such as Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite, are pretty nasty debuffs that can certainly kill you if you are not careful. Having full elemental ailment immunity gives you the confidence to take on whatever challenges you will face in PoE.

If you are wondering why you will use a lightning spell skill gem when leveling starting at level 38, the answer is very simple. Doing so allows for a seamless transition to Archmage Support later down the line.

As we have mentioned earlier, the bulk of the damage of this build actually comes from lightning damage via Archmage Support; not from cold damage that is inherent in the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Transfigured Gem.

When it comes to gear, use any armor/energy shield-based gear you can find. Utilize wands that grant spell damage or cast speed to make your damaging spells stronger.

Additionally, if you can get your hands on Valako’s Sign early on, that would be great! This is a unique ring that increases your damage against monsters affected by the Shock elemental ailment. You can inflict Shock upon your enemies because you are dealing lightning damage. This ring can be equipped starting at level 38.

Here are the stats that you should be looking for when leveling:

• Increased Spell Damage

• Increased Lightning Damage

• Added Lightning Damage

• Increased Cast Speed

• + to Fire Resistance

• + to Cold Resistance

• + to Lightning Resistance

• +% to All Elemental Resistances

As for the gems that you will use when you transition to Ball Lightning at level 38, aim to go for the following:

Damaging Spell

• Ball Lightning

• Pinpoint Support

• Slower Projectiles Support

• Unleash Support

Supplementary Damage

• Orb of Storms

• Power Charge on Critical

• Added Lightning Damage Support

• Culling Strike Support

Auras

• Grace

• Haste (for offense) OR Purity of Elements (for survivability)

Movement

• Shield Charge

• Faster Attacks Support

• Momentum Support

Utility

• Conductivity (cast only on tougher enemies)

• Wave of Conviction (use in conjunction with Conductivity to weaken the enemy’s defenses through Lightning Exposure)

• Frostblink (to keep you out of harm’s way, especially when you are surrounded by monsters)

Gear

Now for the pieces of gear you are going to use for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant. We would say that you need an investment of around 50 to 80 Divine Orbs, though prices are subject to change depending on how popular certain items are. Having said that, there are some items that are mandatory for the build, so do read this section of the build guide to completion to understand how they work.

Weapon

After completing the main PoE campaign, scour the trade website for the Void Battery. If you have the PoE currency, we recommend that you buy two. Why? What makes Void Battery special for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant?

Well, this unique wand raises your Maximum Power Charge by one. But more importantly, it increases your spell damage by 25% for every Power Charge that you have. Since you have the Conviction of Power notable ascendancy passive skill from the Hierophant, you already have four Maximum Power Charges right off the bat. Plus, by using two Void Battery wands, you gain two additional charges for a maximum of six.

If you do the math, six Power Charges translate to 150% increased spell damage! What’s more, the wand itself has up to 40% increased spell damage as an implicit modifier, which certainly adds up to the total!

Void Battery

A good alternative to the Void Battery is the Oscillating Sceptre. This is a sceptre that you can obtain in one of the Curio Displays in a Grand Heist. What makes this weapon special is its implicit modifier, which grants you the effect of the Elemental Overload keystone passive.

Elemental Overload is a pretty nice keystone passive to have, particularly when you do not have a high enough critical strike chance yet. Having said that, obtain an ilvl 82+ Oscillating Sceptre and use Harvest Reforge Caster until you get cast speed, spell damage, crit chance for spells, mana, and lightning damage.

Self-crafted Oscillating Sceptre (Using Harvest Reforge Caster)

Now, a couple of Void Battery wands or Oscillating Sceptres will certainly go a long way. Ultimately, however, you will switch to some self-crafted wands in the endgame. So, how do you go about crafting this wand, you ask? Fortunately for you, we have got you covered!

Start by getting an ilvl 85+ Profane Wand. You want to use this specific wand as the crafting base primarily because of its cast speed implicit modifier. Having said that, use Perfect Fossils to increase its quality to 30%. This gives you a higher chance of getting the modifiers that you want.

After that, spam the wand with the Deafening Essence of Misery (Cast Speed) until you get critical strike chance for spells and global critical strike multiplier. Since this wand is your endgame weapon, aim to achieve T1 rolls when it comes to the mods.

Anyway, once you have the suffixes sorted out, go to the Crafting Bench and put “Suffixes Cannot Be Changed” and use an Orb of Scouring after that. This will remove any prefix modifiers on the wand.

Lock the suffixes again; only this time, use a Veiled Orb afterward. This part of the crafting process will add a veiled prefix modifier to the wand. Before you go to Jun to unveil, you head to the Crafting Bench and add “Attacks With This Weapon Penetrate % Chaos Resistance.” Doing so will block the said mod from appearing on the list of mods during the unveiling.

Then, talk to Jun and unveil. The mod you are looking for is: “% Increased Spell Damage, % Increased Mana Regeneration Rate.” If this particular prefix does not come up, you can opt for “% Increased Lightning Damage, % Chance to Shock” instead.

You are almost done! Go to the Crafting Bench once more and add the prefix: “Gain 8% of Lightning Damage as Extra Chaos Damage.” At this point, you still have an open prefix, so fill it up using an Exalted Orb. Hopefully, the resulting mod will turn out to be “+ to Maximum Mana,” but whatever pops up, you just have to live with it.

When following all of the instructions above, you should have a Profane Wand that looks like this:

Self-crafted Profane Wand (Endgame)

If you want to learn the ins and outs of crafting in Path of Exile, be sure to bookmark our ultimate crafting guide for future reference.

Body Armor

The Loreweave is one of the best unique armors that you can wear for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant. Why? Because this thing has got it all. It grants you attributes, energy shield, life, mana, crit chance, and increased elemental damage.

While those are certainly good stats for the build, the Loreweave provides you with a benefit that no other unique armor in the game has. You see, wearing a perfectly rolled version of this armor raises your maximum resistances to 78%. This includes your chaos resistance as well.

What’s amazing about that is your resistances will never drop below that value. So, even if you are running map modifiers that reduce your elemental resistances, for example, your fire, cold, and lightning resistance will still be at 78% regardless of such modifiers at play!

That being said, how exactly can you get your hands on the Loreweave? Well, if you have been collecting unique rings during your leveling journey, you can actually take advantage of a specific vendor recipe. Basically, talk to any vendor that allows you to sell items. Then, place a full inventory’s worth of unique rings into the window (you need about 60 pieces) and then confirm. You should have the body armor after completing the transaction.

If you do not have an absurd number of unique rings, do not fret! Other players are selling them on the trade website. If you go this route, purchase one that has the 78% maximum resistances modifier.

Loreweave

A viable alternative to the Loreweave is the Cloak of Defiance. This thing works wonders for the build as it grants you a ton of flat mana, mana regeneration, and energy shield. However, the main draw of the Cloak of Defiance is that it grants you the Mind Over Matter keystone passive which, as stated earlier in the build guide, is one of your main defensive layers.

Cloak of Defiance

If you have enough PoE currency on hand, buy a Tailoring Orb and use it on either the Loreweave or Cloak of Defiance for a chance to enchant these body armors with an “8% Increased Explicit Mana Modifier Magnitudes.”

In Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, you can take advantage of the league mechanic to craft yourself an evasion/energy shield-based armor with the explicit modifier: “% of Damage Taken Recouped as Mana.”

To get this mod, put as many corpses that grant the following:

• 200% Increased Chance of Mana Modifiers

• Armour Can Roll Haunted Modifiers, 150% Chance of Haunted Modifiers

• 25% Chance to Fracture an Explicit Modifier.

If you are lucky, you can get body armor with the fractured mana recoup mod. You can use it as a crafting base and spam it with the Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) to get mana, spell suppression, and other useful mods for the build.

When it comes to the implicit modifiers, spam Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get “Purity of Elements Has % Increased Aura Effect” or “% Increased Mana Recovery Rate.” For Eldritch Embers, the mod you are looking for is: “% Increased Effect of Your Curses.”

Self-crafted Body Armor (with Haunted Modifier)

Helmet

The only helmet that you will use for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant is Kitava’s Thirst. This is the item that is responsible for turning this build from a two-button masher into a one-button playstyle.

Kitava’s Thirst is a godsend for this build primarily because it automatically triggers Frostbolt for you, thus alleviating the need to cast the said spell skill gem yourself. Despite the fact that the socketed spells only have a 50% chance to trigger, that is addressed by having a high enough cast speed. Hence, the two self-crafted Profane Wands mentioned earlier in the guide.

Now, it also says on the tin that you need to spend at least 100 mana upfront for it to even trigger Frostbolt. Well, you do not have to worry about it because Archmage Support raises the mana cost of Ice Nova of Frostbolts by a considerable degree.

So long as you have 4,000 mana or more, you do not have any problems with the helmet’s requirement to trigger its unique effect.

The only downside to wearing this thing is that you do not have the freedom to use any other helmets in Path of Exile. Be that as it may, Kitava’s Thirst provides a ton of value to the build, making your life easier when playing the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant.

Kitava's Thirst

Gloves

Even though you are using some unique items on this build, there are certain gear slots that allow you to use rare, self-crafted equipment. The gloves are one of those pieces of gear that you can craft yourself.

Use any armor/energy shield-based pair of gloves as the crafting base, preferably the Crusader Gloves. Next, spam it with the Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) until you get elemental resistance, attributes (STR or INT), life, mana, and energy shield.

The beauty of crafting a pair of rare gloves in PoE is that you can use Eldritch Currencies to guarantee some specific implicit modifiers. Spamming the gloves with Grand Eldritch Ichors enables you to get either lightning exposure on hit or lightning damage leeched as life. The former is great if you want to focus on offense, while the latter really helps with your survivability. Choose which implicit modifier you prefer from the two.

The Grand Eldritch Ember guarantees a modifier from the pool of Searing Exarch mods.  That said, use it on the gloves until you get “25% Chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit. Unnerve is a debuff in Path of Exile that causes affected enemies to take increased spell damage for a limited time.

Self-crafted Gloves

Boots

A pair of Onslaught Boots can go a long way for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant. Onslaught is a buff in PoE that grants 20% increased attack speed, cast speed, and movement speed for a brief period of time. You know how important cast speed is for this build, right? While you can certainly get the Onslaught buff from a Silver Flask, having it on a pair of boots alleviates the need for that particular flask, giving you the freedom to use another flask of your choosing.

To craft these boots, get an ilvl 85+ Crusader Boots and spam it with the Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) until you get a couple of elemental resistance mods. Refer to your character’s stats to see which elemental resistance you have trouble capping.

Anyway, lock the suffixes and then use an Orb of Scouring as usual to remove the prefixes. After that, use a Veiled Orb. Now, the movement speed mod coupled with the Onslaught buff has a very high chance of appearing, so there is no need to block any prefixes. However, if you want a very safe approach, you could bench-craft “+ to Maximum Mana” before heading to Jun to unveil.

Once you have successfully obtained the desired modifier, go to the Crafting Bench and put “+70 to Maximum Life” and then use a single Exalted Orb to fill the last remaining prefix.

How about the implicit modifiers? The Searing Exarch mod that you want on the boots is “% Increased Action Speed,” so spam Eldritch Embers until you get it. For the Eater of Worlds implicit modifier, there is no mandatory mod at all. However, you could put “% Chance to Avoid Bleeding” to help increase your chances of survival since this build does not have a ton of HP to work with. Bleeding is a pain to deal with for low HP builds in Path of Exile, so having some sort of protection against it can go a long way.

Self-crafted Onslaught Boots

When it comes to defenses, you could add spell suppression to the build by using evasion- or evasion/energy shield-based gear. This goes for both gloves and boots, by the way.

The reason why we have opted for the Crusader Gloves and Crusader Boots is that you cannot cap spell suppression on the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant unless you go out of the norm and pick some specific nodes on the passive tree.

However, if you are so inclined, go for Murder Mitts for the gloves and Murder Boots for the boots. You can also obtain spell suppression on a rare body armor, but that is only if you want to use such equipment over Loreweave.

Amulet

There are a few amazing amulets that you can wear on this build. The first one we recommend is Eternal Damnation. This thing grants you a small amount of mana and some chaos resistance. But, its main selling point is that you gain additional elemental damage reduction equal to half of your total chaos resistance.

If you can recall, the Loreweave unique body armor caps all of your resistances to 78%. If you divide that by half, you will gain 39% elemental damage reduction just by wearing the Eternal Damnation.

Do not be afraid of the amulet’s downside because the Loreweave prevents your resistances from going below 78%; that is assuming that you have capped them at that number to begin with.

Eternal Damnation

The second amulet is actually a staple in mana-stacking builds in PoE – Atziri’s Foible. This thing significantly boosts your maximum mana, as well as gives you a huge boost to your mana regeneration rate. What’s more, the attribute requirements of your other items and gems are reduced by 25%, making it a lot easier for you to use whatever equipment you want.

Atziri’s Foible gives you the benefit of increasing both your offense and defense as well. That is because Archmage Support provides you with added lightning damage based on 19% of your unreserved maximum mana. In terms of defense, Mind Over Matter and Divine Guidance split the damage you receive and decrease that from mana before your life. And oh, do not forget about Corrupted Soul too!

Atziri's Foible

The third great amulet for this build is a new one called The Utmost, which was introduced in the 3.24 Necropolis League. This can be acquired by placing the four Primordial Fragments, namely Curio of Absorption, Curio of Decay, Curio of Potential, and Curio of Consumption, in this exact order in your inventory.

If you are wondering where these Primordial Fragments drop from, here is a rundown:

• Curio of Absorption

• Obtained from the Uber Searing Exarch

• Curio of Decay

• Obtained from the Uber Elder

• Curio of Potential

• Obtained from the Uber Maven

• Curio of Consumption

• Obtained from the Uber Eater of Worlds

So, what does The Utmost bring to the table? This unique amulet is pretty amazing because it grants you up to a 30% chance to suppress spell damage, 40% increased attack/cast speed, 20% elemental damage penetration, and 5% to all maximum elemental resistances. You only need to concern yourself with the first three because the “+5% to All Maximum Elemental Resistances” modifier does not work when you have the Loreweave equipped.

Anyway, wearing The Utmost is a great way to achieve a high spell suppression chance, assuming that you also have the same mod on your crafted gloves and boots.

As for what Blight anoints you should use, Battle Rouse (Sepia Oil, Verdant Oil, and Azure Oil) is amazing because it not only grants you a 15% increased maximum mana, but it allows you to recoup some mana back based on 10% of the damage you take as well.

Other anoints you can put on your amulet are:

• Mind Drinker

• 20% Increased Maximum Mana

• Recover 2% of Mana on Kill

• Requires Verdant Oil, 2x Teal Oils

• Soul Siphon

• 18% Increased Maximum Mana

• Gain 10 Mana per Enemy Killed

• +20 to Maximum Mana

• Requires Violet Oil, 2x Amber Oils

• Dynamo

• 18% Increased Maximum Mana

• Guard Skills Have a 40% Increased Duration

• Requires Clear Oil, Sepia Oil, Azure Oil

• Arcane Capacitor

• 15% Increased Maximum Mana

• 10% Chance to Gain Arcane Surge When You Kill an Enemy

• 10% Increased Effect of Arcane Surge on You Per 200 Mana Spent Recently (in the past 4 seconds), up to 50%

• Requires Violet Oil, Black Oil, Golden Oil

• Whispers of Doom

• You Can Apply an Additional Curse

• Requires 3x Golden Oils

• Note: Only anoint if you do not have the Anathema equipped

Rings

Anathema is an incredible ring for the build, mainly because it enables you to cast more than a couple of curses on the enemy at a time.

If you are new to Path of Exile, you can only apply one curse on the enemy if you do not have Whispers of Doom. If you have the said notable passive skill, the curse limit is increased to two. But, with so many different curse spells in the game, having the ability to apply one or two curses  can be severely limiting, which is probably why GGG has made Anathema to address that.

You see, Anathema has a unique effect where your curse limit is equivalent to your Maximum Power Charges. Since you have Conviction of Power from the Hierophant, that cap is raised to four right off the bat and that is more than enough for this build.

Aside from its unique effect, Anathema increases your INT and cast speed by a sizable amount, making it a nice addition to your gear.

Anathema

For the other ring, you can craft it using the Deafening Essence of Zeal (Cast Speed). Spam the said Essence on an ilvl 85+ Amethyst Ring (Chaos Resistance) until you get DEX, life, mana, and mana regeneration rate.

The reason why you want to use the Amethyst Ring as a crafting base is so that you will have a much easier time capping your chaos resistance. However, if your chaos resistance is already sorted out, you can go for the Cerulean Ring for its “% Increased Maximum Mana” implicit modifier instead.

After you have obtained all of the desired modifiers, do not forget to spam it with Fertile Catalysts to enhance the life and mana mods on the ring.

Self-crafted Ring

Belt

The Stygian Vise is an incredible, cost-efficient belt that you can craft on your own. Use the belt slot as a means of addressing your elemental or chaos resistances, life, and mana. If you still have one or two of your elemental resistances that need sorting out, you can spam an ilvl 85+ Stygian Vise with the Essence of Anger (Fire Resistance), the Essence of Hatred (Cold Resistance, or the Essence of Wrath (Lightning Resistance). If your chaos resistance is not capped yet, you can go for the Essence of Envy.

After spamming the belt with your preferred Essence and having acquired life, mana, and elemental/chaos resistances, you can leave a prefix open (or use an Orb of Annulment to force one) and then use a Crusader’s Exalted Orb. As you can tell by its name, using the said PoE currency puts a Crusader-influenced modifier on the item.

By doing so, you have a chance to obtain the mod: “% Increased Lightning Damage.” Hopefully, you get a Tier 1 of this mod for maximum effect. If you do all of the above steps, you should have a Stygian Vise that looks something like this:

Self-crafted Stygian Vise (with Crusader Mod)

Interestingly, the belt is actually considered jewelry in Path of Exile. For this reason, spam the Stygian Vise with Fertile Catalysts to improve any life and mana modifiers on the said belt.

If you have the PoE currency, you can definitely purchase the Mageblood. The Mageblood is a staple among many builds in the game mainly because it basically grants you the effects up to four magic utility flasks at all times.

This belt is pretty popular in the game as it helps rectify any issues that you may have, including lack of elemental resistances, poor defensive numbers, and slow movement speed, among many others.

Mageblood

Flasks

• Main

• Granite Flask

• Silver Flask

• Diamond Flask

• Quicksilver Flask

• Taste of Hate

• Alternatives

• Quartz Flask

• Amethyst Flask

• Bismuth Flask

• The Wise Oak

• Progenesis

The Granite Flask grants you with a flat 1,500 increase in your armor value. Remember the Crusader Boots and Crusader Gloves? These pieces of gear can roll with “% Increased Armor/Energy Shield” as a prefix. This certainly helps improve the increase in armor value that the Granite Flask provides.

What about the Silver Flask? When used, it grants you the Onslaught buff for a limited period of time, thus boosting your cast speed and movement speed. Include this flask as part of your build if you do not have the Onslaught Boots crafted yet. But, once you have the said boots equipped, you can replace the Silver Flask with another flask of your choosing.

You want to raise your chance to land critical hits on the enemy to maximize your overall damage output. That is the reason why the Diamond Flask is included in the flask setup for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant.

The Quicksilver Flask is just a means of providing you with increased movement speed as you traverse the map. In PoE, you are rewarded quite nicely if you are able to clear maps with amazing efficiency, which the Quicksilver can certainly help you with.

Taste of Hate is a unique flask that serves both offensive and defensive purposes. For one, you gain extra cold damage when the flask is active. Furthermore, up to 15% of the physical damage you take is converted to cold damage, which is then heavily reduced by the Loreweave (assuming that you are wearing this body armor, that is).

So, what about the alternatives? If you are already wearing the Onslaught Boots, you can swap it with either Amethyst Flask for increased chaos resistance, or the Bismuth Flask if you still do not have your elemental resistances capped just yet. The Quartz Flask provides you with a bit of spell suppression, but what makes it interesting is that you can phase through enemies, allowing you to move past them without obstructions.

The Wise Oak is a relatively inexpensive unique flask that you can either acquire while mapping or purchase from the trade website. Do not be fooled by its cheap price because this flask is quite amazing when utilized by the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant.

Why, you ask? Well, when the flask is active, it grants you elemental penetration for the highest uncapped elemental resistance, as well as elemental damage reduction depending on your lowest uncapped elemental resistance.

Since you have the Loreweave equipped, all of your elemental resistances are capped at 78%, which means that you actually take advantage of both the offensive and defensive bonuses provided by The Wise Oak! That is why this build is quite tanky because this is one of the defenses that can help you survive on the battlefield. That is, of course, if you opt to use this particular unique flask.

Speaking of defenses, if currency is not an issue at all, then perhaps you can buy the Progenesis flask. This unique flask is akin to Petrified Blood in that a small portion of the damage you take from hits is staggered over a period of four seconds. So, rather than getting damage immediately after taking a hit, you receive damage over time instead. This is a good thing because you can recover your life and mana back by hitting enemies with your spells.

Flask Mods

• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)

• 17% Increased Cast Speed (of the Horsefly)

• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)

• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)

Jewels

There is only one mandatory unique jewel for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant and that is the Glorious Vanity, with the line that says: “Bathed in the Blood of # Sacrificed in the Name of Doryani.” This specific Glorious Vanity turns the nearest keystone passive into Corrupted Soul which, as mentioned many times in the build, can greatly help improve your survivability.

The rest of the jewels are “nice-to-haves,” so feel free to get them as soon as you have enough PoE currency to do so.

Begin with purchasing a Watcher’s Eye with “% of Damage Taken While Affected by Clarity Recouped as Mana” and “% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage While Affected by Purity of Elements.” A two-mod Watcher’s Eye should suffice, but if you can afford a three-passive version with modifiers that get activated when you have Purity of Elements and Clarity enabled, then go for it!

The Healthy Mind is a unique jewel in Path of Exile that not only grants up to 20% increased maximum mana, but also transforms any life nodes within its radius to mana at 200% of their value. This can help you raise your maximum mana to above 7,000, granted that you have plenty of flat mana mods on your other pieces of gear.

Now, getting stunned in the game can spell doom, especially if you are fighting the pinnacle bosses, such as the Uber Maven or the Uber Elder. Having said that, the Immutable Force is a jewel that you might want to include in the build.

What the Immutable Force does is gives you a ton of stun/block recovery, making the stun animation feel as brief as it can possibly be. In other words, in the event that you do get stunned by the enemy, you won’t feel it at all with this jewel inserted into your passive tree!

Having said that, aim to get an Immutable Force that has at least 961% stun recovery, so that the stun animation only lasts a whole server tic (or 33 ms).

The Perandus Pact is a new unique jewel that was added in Patch 3.24. This jewel grants the allocated passive skills in its radius additional bonuses. That said, get one that has “7% Increased Armour” or “+4% to Chaos Resistance.”

If you truly want to take things to the next level in terms of overall damage, then you can invest in The Adorned. This is a relatively new unique jewel in Path of Exile that increases the corrupted magic (blue) jewels.

Speaking of which, the jewels that you should use must have “% Increased Maximum Mana” and “+% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier as the prefix and suffix, respectively. On top of that, if you are going to buy The Adorned from the trade website, make sure that you get one that is as close to 150% increased effect as possible to get the most out of the jewel.

You can invest in some cluster jewels as well. Get a Large Cluster Jewel (Lightning Damage) and spam it with Lucent Fossils (Mana) until you get Scintillating Idea, Prismatic Heart, and another notable passive skill. The last one should be situated in between the first two notables so that you can save up a couple of passive skill points in the process.

Scintillating Idea is a staple among many mana-stacking builds in Path of Exile that deal lightning damage. That is because this node increases your maximum mana by 20%. Additionally, it provides you with 5% lightning penetration, allowing you to deal a bit more damage against monsters.

Prismatic Heart, on the other hand, grants 30% increased elemental damage. It also boosts your elemental resistances by 10%, which can aid you in achieving the elemental resistance cap.

Even though passive skill points are tight on this build, you can include at least one Medium Cluster Jewel (Critical Strike Chance). That said, use Harvest Reforge Caster to obtain Pressure Points and Quick Getaway.

Pressure Points is a cluster jewel-only notable passive skill that grants a 30% increased critical strike chance, as well as a small chance to deal double damage to the enemy.

Quick Getaway also boosts your critical strike chance by 25%. However, the reason why it is amazing for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant is that it gives you a 5% increased cast speed and movement speed as well.

Gems

The gem setups for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant are pretty much set in stone, meaning, there is little to no room for flexibility. Despite that, the gems that will be highlighted in this section of the build guide are the best, so you really do not have to think about anything else.

Body Armor

• Ice Nova of Frostbolts

• Archmage Support

• Awakened Spell Echo Support

• Awakened Lightning Penetration

• Increased Critical Damage Support

• Inspiration Support

Ice Nova of Frostbolts is, of course, your bread and butter for this build. Although this is a cold spell skill gem, the bulk of your damage actually comes from the added lightning damage granted by Archmage Support. 

Speaking of which, Archmage Support is what makes this build tick. This support gem gives you a ton of lightning damage based on a sizable portion of your maximum unreserved mana. For this reason, you want to get as many “+ to Maximum Mana” or “% Increased Maximum Mana” modifiers on your gear and jewels. This support gem also raises the mana cost of Ice Nova of Frostbolts, so you will have an easier time activating the unique effect of Kitava’s Thirst. If you can level this gem up to 21 by corrupting a max-level Archmage Support with a Vaal Orb, it will give you added lightning damage equal to 20% of your unreserved maximum mana rather than just 19%!

Awakened Spell Echo is a support gem that repeats the Ice Nova of Frostbolts an additional time. This allows you to cast the said spell twice with a single click. Additionally, Awakened Spell Echo grants a “54% more cast speed modifier for your Ice Nova of Frostbolts, making it far less clunky to use even with Kitava’s Thirst equipped.

Awakened Lightning Penetration is a nice addition to the build because it allows you to penetrate through the enemy’s lightning resistance. This makes your damaging spells hit harder than ever.

Increased Critical Damage is a support gem that does not have any fancy effects. Rather, it provides you with one thing, and one thing only: a huge increase in your critical strike multiplier. When you have a high enough crit chance, Increased Critical Damage is definitely one support gem that you should use to further increase your damage output.

Inspiration Support increases your crit chance by up to 40%. However, this has an added effect that reduces the mana cost of Ice Nova of Frostbolts. Hence, always look at the skill’s tooltip to see if it has more than 100 upfront mana cost. This is essential for triggering Frostbolt via Kitava’s Thirst. You might have to lower the level of this specific support gem if the mana cost of Ice Nova of Frostbolts dips below 100.

Helmet

• Frostbolt (lvl 1)

• Greater Volley Support

• Enfeeble

• Elemental Weakness

Frostbolt, for this build, is just a means of “delivering” the devastating Ice Novas from your primary spell. That is why you can leave the gem to just level 1 to keep its mana cost at an acceptable level.

Greater Volley Support allows you to fire up to five Frostbolt projectiles at once. Since several projectiles are unleashed at a time, you can imagine just how many Ice Novas can happen at any given moment. Anyway, you do not have a high amount of DEX on this build, so only raise this gem up to the level that the said attribute permits.

Thanks to Anathema and Conviction of Power, you have the ability to cast up to four different curse spells. Well, Enfeeble is one of those. Enemies affected by this curse spell have their accuracy and damage reduced by a considerable amount.

Elemental Weakness is the second curse spell for this build. When used, it reduces the elemental resistances of cursed monsters by 30% at gem level 20.

Gloves

• Arcane Cloak

• Arcane Surge

• Automation Support

• Increased Duration Support

Arcane Cloak is quite an amazing guard skill, particularly when utilized by a mana-stacking build such as the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant. That is because this skill soaks up damage equal to the mana you spent casting it. On top of that, Arcane Cloak grants you added lightning damage that is equivalent to 14% of the mana you have spent by this skill’s effect. All of this is to say that Arcane Cloak is not only great for defense, but it boosts your offense too!

Now, you are probably wondering why Arcane Surge is included as one of your gems for the build even though you already have the Arcane Blessing from the Hierophant already allocated. Well, the reason is simple, actually. Arcane Blessing only grants you the effect of a level 1 Arcane Surge, so you are not really getting the most out of the said spell. Using a dedicated gem just makes it so that a ton of cast speed, mana regeneration rate, and spell damage while it is active.

To make the build comfortable to play without worrying about pressing a lot of buttons, you will include the new Automation Support as well. This is a new support gem that was added in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. As its name implies, it automatically activates Arcane Cloak and Arcane Surge whenever they are available for use. Make sure to put the “Automation” action on your hotbar and use it whenever you enter a new map.

Increased Duration Support is just there to make Arcane Cloak and Arcane Surge last longer.

Boots

• Purity of Elements

• Eternal Blessing Support

• Clarity

• Arrogance Support

To maximize the added lightning damage that Archmage Support gives, you must never have your mana be used to activate auras. For this reason, you are going to utilize a couple of support gems to ensure that it will not happen.

Purity of Elements is an aura that provides you with a ton of elemental resistances. It also grants full elemental ailment immunity when it is active. As mentioned above, you do not want even a single point of your mana to be reserved by your auras, which is why Purity of Elements is linked to Eternal Blessing Support.

Eternal Blessing is a support gem in PoE that enables you to activate an aura without reserving life or mana. However, it has a downside, where non-blessing skills that reserve mana are disabled when you have an aura from a supported skill (in this case, Purity of Elements) on you.

While Eternal Blessing’s downside might seem like a bummer, you can actually fit another aura by using a different support gem. This time, it is Arrogance Support. This particular support gem reserves a portion of your life instead of mana. As you can see, this gem itself circumvents the inherent disadvantage of using Eternal Blessing Support.

Anyway, what aura are you going to link to Arrogance Support? Well, that is none other than Clarity. Clarity, when active, allows you to regenerate 33 mana per second at gem level 20. This effect is enhanced further by any “% Increased Mana Regeneration Rate” mods you have on your gear.

The reason why it is possible to link Clarity to Arrogance Support is that this aura reserves a flat amount of mana, rather than a percentage of the said resource.

Weapon

• Punishment

• Assassin’s Mark

• Arcanist Brand

Here lies the last two of the curses you are going to use on this build. Punishment is a curse spell in PoE that causes affected monsters to take even more damage while they are below 50% of their maximum health.

Assassin’s Mark is a skill that gives you a higher crit chance and critical strike multiplier against cursed enemies.

Both of these gems are linked to Arcanist Brand. When used, you place a magical Brand on the enemy, inflicting them with the linked curse spells automatically for the duration of the Brand. Since you have a high cast speed, the activation frequency of the Arcanist Brand is pretty fast as a result.

Offhand

• Frostblink of Wintry Blast

• Faster Casting Support

• Sigil of Power

Frostblink of Wintry Blast is your primary movement skill for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant. Unlike its base version, this Transfigured Gem enables you to move quickly around the map without a cooldown. Frostblink of Wintry Blast also feels quite smooth to use, especially when you have your cast speed sorted out. That is why it is linked to Faster Casting Support because when you level this support gem up to the max, it provides Frostblink with 49% increased cast speed!

Sigil of Power is cast manually. But despite that, you place a large sigil on the ground that grants you the ability to gain “stages.” When you have achieved the maximum of four stages, your enemies will deal 23% less damage to you. Moreover, you gain up to 141 added lightning damage per stage. This is why Sigil of Power is a nice addition to the build as it provides a considerable boost to your offense and defense.

Pantheon

So, what Pantheon power should you use for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant? Soul of the Brine King provides a ton of value to the build. That is because when it is fully upgraded, you gain 30% increased stun and block recovery, as well as freeze immunity and a 50% reduced effect of Chill on you.

Once you have achieved full elemental ailment immunity (via Purity of Elements) and gained a considerable amount of stun recovery (from the Immutable Force), you can safely switch to Soul of Lunaris.

Soul of Lunaris gives you up to 8% physical damage reduction and 8% increased movement speed. This major god also reduces the elemental damage you take if you get one of its upgrades.

As for the minor gods, you definitely need to go for Soul of Abberath if you are farming Searing Exarch altars. When farming Eater of Worlds altars, you have a couple of good options.

Soul of Gruthkul grants you up to 5% additional physical damage reduction for each hit you’ve taken recently. On the other hand, Soul of Ralakesh is not bad at all, especially since you do not take extra damage from the Bleeding status effect while you move.

Tattoos

In Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, Grinding Gear Games has brought back the Tattoos that were introduced a couple of leagues ago. Having said that, which Tattoos are you going to use for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant? Here are some of the ones that we can recommend:

• Tattoo of the Valako Shaman

• 5% Increased Lightning Damage

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Shaman

• 8% Increased Mana Regeneration Rate

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Warrior

• 3% Increased Maximum Energy Shield

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller

• +3% to Chaos Resistance

• Tattoo of the Rongokurai Guard

• Guard Skills Have a 6% Increased Duration

So, which one of the Tattoos should you prioritize? Since Archmage Support already gives you a ton of added lightning damage, you can go for Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller to ensure that you cap your chaos resistance.

Once that is sorted out, then and only then can you think about using the other Tattoos. If you ask us, we would recommend that you put as many Tattoos of the Hinekora Shaman on the INT nodes in the passive tree. The Tattoo of the Valako Shaman is not bad at all since it is a percentage increase and not a flat amount of damage.

The Tattoo of the Rongokurai Guard is not bad at all. Because you have some STR nodes allocated, you can put at least a couple of these if you can get your hands on this particular Tattoo. Having an Arcane Cloak that lasts longer can go a long way from a survival standpoint.

Passive Tree

Passive Tree for the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant

POB

Main Setup

Alternate Version (with Cloak of Defiance + The Adorned)

Alternate Version (with The Utmost + Spell Suppression Gear)

Final Thoughts

The Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant is an incredible build that was spawned thanks to the significant changes GGG has made to the Archmage Support in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. Because this support gem no longer requires you to spend exorbitant amounts of mana, you can definitely scale the added lightning damage to decimate any enemy you come across on the battlefield.

In terms of offense, this build utilizes the transfigured version of Ice Nova to great effect. What makes it awesome to use for mapping or bossing is that you can cast the Ice Nova of Frostbolts on the projectiles spawned by the Frostbolt spell skill gem – the latter of which is triggered automatically thanks to Kitava’s Thirst. This combination causes some serious damage that affects multiple enemies in a radius.

Even though this build can definitely slay anything in its path, it is not a slouch when it comes to the defensive side of things. Thanks to the Loreweave, Eternal Damnation, and Glorious Vanity (Doryani), you can significantly reduce the damage you receive from the enemy. On top of that, you can recoup some of your life and mana back simply by constantly putting pressure on your foes.

While this build certainly requires PoE currency to put up, the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Hierophant is definitely one that we can wholeheartedly recommend in Patch 3.24!

If you need any information about crafting, be sure to bookmark our ultimate crafting guide for future reference.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Mana-stacking build that utilizes the newly buffed Archmage Support to great effect

+Amazingly tanky due to its multiple defensive layers

+Can take on even the toughest monsters and bosses in PoE without a hitch

+Cool interaction with Frostbolt and Ice Nova of Frostbolts makes this build incredibly fun to play

+High mobility thanks to Frostbolt of Wintry Blast coupled with the build’s high cast speed

+Start with a non-crit version and then switch to the crit variant as soon as you get all of the necessary pieces

+One of the best builds in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Requires a sizable investment for the build to feel great to use

-Some pieces of gear are expensive

-Not a league starter