Icestorm Trickster - Path of Exile 3.24

It is without a doubt that Grinding Gear Games shook things up in Path of Exile with the changes the company made in the previous league. However, despite these many adjustments, one build that does not rely on a spell skill gem stood out above the rest. This build is none other than the Icestorm Trickster.

This build is pretty tanky thanks to the Trickster ascendancy class. Moreover, while it is not billed as a league starter, you can actually make things work if you can get your hands on the weapon that makes it all possible.

Anyway, if you want to try something unique, then go on and read ahead. This is our comprehensive build guide for the Icestorm Trickster in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

In Path of Exile, the vast majority of spells and skills come from gems that you slot into your gear. However, this build, in particular, relies on a unique effect from The Whispering Ice – a two-handed warstaff that grants the Icestorm skill.

When used, Icestorm rains down icy bolts from the sky that deal cold damage to the enemy. What makes this skill special is that its damage scales from the Intelligence (INT) stat. Therefore, the Icestorm Trickster is built as an INT stacker, meaning, your gear should have the Intelligence attribute wherever possible.

Now, Icestorm has a relatively long cast time of 0.75 seconds. In a fast-paced game like PoE, that is not good from an efficiency standpoint. Fortunately, Icestorm interacts with Cast While Channeling Support (CwC), thus circumventing the skill’s inherent downside. That is why this build is unique because you are actually going to use two The Whispering Ice staves; one specifically for bossing and another that is meant for mapping.

The mapping setup with CwC uses Cyclone to trigger the Icestorm. On the other hand, the bossing setup requires you to manually cast Icestorm yourself, but this allows you to reposition when needed.

To ensure maximum efficiency, the Cast While Channeling Support gem must not exceed level 15. The reason is that Icestorm’s icy bolts deal damage every 0.2 seconds. And, you can only summon up to five storms at a time. Any storm that is cast after that just replaces the first one and so on. 

With a level 15 CwC, Icestorm’s cast time will be at 0.37 seconds (1.85 seconds for a full cycle), which results in a single storm being able to hit enemies nine times before getting replaced with a new one.

Having said that, the Icestorm Trickster requires you to wear special items. Although they can drop from anywhere, this might not be the ideal build to run in a league start scenario, though you can certainly think about it after a few days have passed.

This build is also no slouch when it comes to the defensive side of things. In fact, the Icestorm Trickster is incredibly tanky due to its insanely huge energy shield pool. On top of that, you will be allocating the Chaos Inoculation keystone passive, making you immune to chaos damage.

If you want to increase the damage output of this build, look for the following modifiers on your gear:

• Increased Cold Damage

• Increased Elemental Damage

• Increased Spell Damage

• Increased Area Damage

• Increased Critical Strike Chance

• + to Critical Strike Multiplier

• + to Intelligence 

Playstyle

The playstyle of the Icestorm Trickster depends on the scenario. For mapping, all you have to do is use Cyclone and the Icestorm will automatically be cast thanks to Cast While Channeling Support.

When you are fighting bosses in Path of Exile, you will use The Whispering Ice with a different set of gems. Unlike the mapping setup, you are going to manually cast Icestorm yourself. Since the skill’s cast time is longer without CwC, you can certainly do some kiting to position yourself in a way that the enemy gets hit by the storms as frequently as possible.

Ascendancy

Now, you would think that this build utilizes the Elementalist or Occultist as the ascendancy class of choice, considering that Icestorm deals cold damage. However, it actually uses the Trickster as its ascendancy class mainly because of the balance of offensive and defensive nodes.

Heartstopper makes you tanky even without a lot of gear. This is why you are going to take this after completing your first labyrinth. What this node does is it significantly reduces the damage you take every 10 seconds. With this notable ascendancy passive skill, finishing the campaign is not a chore even if you do not have good equipment yet.

Escape Artist enables you to get more energy shield from your equipped body armor. For this reason, you will craft a good chest yourself. More on this in the appropriate section of the build guide.

Soul Drinker aids you in sustaining your ES. That is because it grants you the ability to leech energy off of your enemies based on 2% of your damage. That’s not all! You will continuously leech energy shield even if your ES is already filled. If you have played the Slayer ascendancy class in PoE before, this is quite similar to Brutal Fervour, albeit instead of life, you are leeching ES.

Polymath is taken as the last ascendancy node. By the time you complete the level 75 labyrinth, you will already have more than four different masteries allocated. Thanks to this notable passive skill, you will gain more damage and recover 1% of your mana and energy shield for each different type of mastery you have allocated on the passive tree.

If you want to take things a step further, you can purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with “Ambush and Assassinate” as the matching modifier. This gives you a boost in damage, crit chance, and critical strike multiplier. Furthermore, your critical strikes have a culling effect, meaning, enemies that are below 10% life will instantly be killed.

Notable Passive Skills for Icestorm Trickster

Gear

The pieces of gear that you are going to wear for the Icestorm Trickster are not too expensive. However, you might want to save up some PoE currency to get better rolls and upgrades later down the line.

Weapon

The Whispering Ice is a core part of the build and is definitely non-negotiable. As mentioned earlier in the build guide, get yourself a pair of these because you will need two different gem setups depending on the scenario.

The Whispering Ice

Body Armor

To maximize the effect of the Escape Artist notable passive skill from the Trickster ascendancy tree, you will craft your own body armor. Grab an ilvl 86+ Sadist Garb and spam it with Deafening Essence of Doubt (Evasion Rating) until you get evasion, energy shield, INT, and one elemental resistance. Leave a suffix open so that you can bench-craft “6% Increased Attributes.”

For the implicit modifiers, spam the armor with Grand Eldritch Ichors until you obtain “1% Less Damage Taken per 210 Intelligence” and Grand Eldritch Embers for “14% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills.”

If you want to learn the ins and outs of crafting in Path of Exile, feel free to visit our ultimate crafting guide for more details.

Self-crafted Body Armor

Helmet

The helmet you are going to wear for the Icestorm Trickster is a self-crafted one with the Hubris Circlet as the crafting base. Spam it with Deafening Essence of Spite (INT) until you get energy shield, elemental resistance, and mana.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the helm with Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get “Damage Penetrates 5% Cold Resistance” and Grand Eldritch Embers for “36% Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells.”

Self-crafted Hubris Circlet (with Eldritch Implicit Mods)

If you want to take things up a notch, you can use a Hunter Exalted Orb for a chance to obtain the mod: “% Increased Intelligence.”

Self-crafted Hubris Circlet (with Hunter Mod)

Gloves

The same thing goes for the gloves. Get yourself an ilvl 85+ Sorcerer Gloves and spam it with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get energy shield and elemental resistance. If you have a prefix slot open, you can add the mod “43% Increased Damage While Leeching” from the Crafting Bench.

Now, the gloves do have some pretty amazing implicit modifiers. Use Eldritch Ichors until you get “% Increased Damage per 100 Intelligence” and Eldritch Embers for “% Chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit.”

Self-crafted Sorcerer Gloves

Boots

The Stampede provides a ton of value for the Icestorm Trickster. That is primarily because this is the only pair of boots in PoE that allows you to anoint them with a notable passive skill, similar to an amulet. That said, anoint The Stampede with Tranquility (Azure oil, 2x Golden Oils) for a boost in your energy shield and spell damage.

The Stampede

Amulet

Speaking of the amulet, you are going to use the Simplex Amulet as the crafting base for that “100% Increased Explicit Modifier Magnitudes.” The downside of this thing is that you can only have 1 prefix and a couple of suffixes, but these are more than enough for the build.

Anyway, you are actually going to get two different ilvl 80+ Simplex Amulets; one with a Shaper Influence and the other with a Crusader Influence.

On the Shaper-influenced Simplex Amulet, spam it with Fundamental Fossils until you get “2% Increased Damage per 15 intelligence.”

On the Crusader-influenced amulet, use Fundamental Fossils again; only this time, you are looking for the mod: “% Increased Intelligence.”

After getting the desired mods, merge them by using an Awakener’s Orb. If you get lucky, you might even get the “% Increased Attributes” mod as well.

Once you have successfully crafted the amulet, anoint it with Charisma (Opalescent Oil, 2x Golden Oils) if you need more mana to activate your auras. Alternatively, you can anoint it with Whispers of Doom (3x Golden Oils) if you want to gain the ability to apply an additional curse.

If Golden Oils are not within reach yet, you could put Mystic Talents (Amber Oil, Opalescent Oil, Silver Oil) on the amulet for the time being. This provides you with a modest amount of INT, spell damage, mana regen, and energy shield just by using some relatively inexpensive oils.

Self-crafted Simplex Amulet

Rings

If you still do not have plenty of PoE currency, you can use Two-Stone Rings and spam them with Essence of Spite to guarantee the Intelligence suffix. Do this until you get other good mods, such as attributes, energy shield, and elemental resistance.

In the endgame, you should acquire two synthesized rings with the “% Increased Intelligence” implicit modifier. Don’t forget to use Intrinsic Catalysts (Attributes) for good measure.

Self-crafted Synthesized Ring

The synthesized rings require you to spend a ton of PoE currency to obtain. Fortunately, you can also use a pair of unique rings in the meantime.

Shavronne’s Revelation is an affordable ring that not only grants you some INT, but when worn on the left ring slot, you regenerate 40 mana per second, as well as gain a considerable amount of energy shield. If you are ballsy, you can corrupt the ring yourself with a Vaal Orb in the hopes of getting the “% Increased Dexterity, % Increased Intelligence” corrupted implicit mod.

Shavronne's Revelation (with Corrupted Implicit Mods)

Another unique ring that is a viable alternative to the synthesized ring is Anathema. It contains modifiers that can benefit the Icestorm Trickster, including some INT and increased cast speed.

However, the main draw of the Anathema is its unique effect, where the number of curses you can apply on monsters is equivalent to your Maximum Power Charges. You can easily attain five Power Charges just by taking a couple of nodes on the passive tree. If you’re able to apply five curses on the enemy, you can slay them easily without breaking a sweat!

Anathema

Belt

Did you know that a belt is considered jewelry in Path of Exile? Anyway, since belts in the game cannot roll INT naturally, you should spam Essence of Spite to guarantee the said attribute when crafting your own belt.

Just like the rings, you should invest in a synthesized belt with the “% Intelligence” implicit modifier to get the most out of your Icestorm skill.

Self-crafted Synthesized Belt

Flasks

• Jade Flask

• Diamond Flask

• Quicksilver Flask

• The Wise Oak

• Rumi’s Concoction

• Oriath’s End (endgame)

The three core flasks for the Icestorm Trickster are the Jade Flask, Diamond Flask, and Quicksilver Flask. Jade Flask helps improve your survivability by giving you a considerable increase in your evasion rating.

Although this build does not have an insanely high critical strike chance, you can enhance that a bit by using the Diamond Flask.

To enhance your mapping experience, using the Quicksilver Flask is ideal. Now, you do have a couple of unique flasks that you can use instead of the Quicksilver Flask.

Rumi’s Concoction not only provides you with some armor but it also boosts your attack and spell block chance as well.

The Wise Oak is a unique flask that actually has two purposes. First, it enables you to penetrate the enemy’s elemental resistance based on your highest uncapped elemental resistance. Since Icestorm deals cold damage, your cold resistance must be the highest value than your fire and lightning resistance. 

Second, it reduces the elemental damage you take depending on which of your elemental resistances is the lowest. This really does not matter that much, so you don’t have to min-max the defensive portion of The Wise Oak, but it is still worth pointing out nevertheless.

In the endgame, Oriath’s End helps with your map-clearing speed immensely. When used, enemies that you kill have a chance to explode, dealing a portion of their life as damage of a random element.

Flask Mods

• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)

• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You (of the Owl)

• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)

Jewels

If you can recall, we have mentioned that the Icestorm Trickster is built as an INT stacker, which means that you should put as many Intelligence mods on your gear as possible. Well, there are plenty of jewels that can help you boost your INT attribute manifold – one of which is Split Personality. Get one that has +5 INT and +5 to maximum energy shield.

The reason why Split Personality is a staple among “stacker” builds in Path of Exile is that the jewel’s effects are increased by 25% the farther it is socketed from your class’ starting location. That is why it is typically placed in Large Cluster Jewels since large jewel slots are situated at the farthest ends of the passive tree.

With that said, get a couple of Large Cluster Jewels (Cold Damage) and use the combo of Frigid and Prismatic Fossils until you get Blanketed Snow and Cold to the Core. These notable passive skills provide you with the following:

• Blanketed Snow

• Damage Penetrates 10% Cold Resistance Against Chilled Enemies

• Cold to the Core

• 1% Increased Cold Damage per 25 Intelligence

• 1% Increased Cold Damage per 25 Dexterity

• 1% Increased Cold Damage per 25 Strength

Brute Force Solution is a very affordable jewel that transforms STR nodes in its radius into INT nodes. Insert this one in the jewel socket that is adjacent to the Overcharge node on the left side of the passive tree.

Of course, you will also add a Watcher’s Eye jewel into the build because there are plenty of amazing modifiers that can improve the Icestorm Trickster. Here are some of the mods that we recommend:

• Hatred

• Damage Penetrates % Cold Resistance

• % Increased Cold Damage

• +% to Critical Strike Chance

• Purity of Elements

• % of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage

• % Reduced Reflected Elemental Damage Taken

• Clarity

• Gain % of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield

• % of Damage Taken Recouped as Mana

• Discipline

• Gain % Energy Shield per Enemy Hit

• Regenerate % of Energy Shield per Second

• % Faster Start of Energy Shield Recharge

The Icestorm Trickster has a bit of trouble achieving 100% crit chance, but the good thing is that you can get close to that number; either by raising your maximum Power Charges or by using the Rational Doctrine unique jewel.

Rational Doctrine, on this build, allows you to create a Profane Ground on critical strike. This is possible because INT is your highest attribute. That said, Profane Ground in PoE is a detrimental ground effect that gives you a higher chance to critically hit enemies with your spells and attacks when they step on it. Furthermore, if they do move away from its AoE, the effects of the Profane Ground will still linger for several seconds, leaving your foes with no chance to escape!

When shopping for a Rational Doctrine on the trade website, purchase one with “% Increased Cold Damage,” “% Increased Global Critical Strike Chance,” and “+ to Intelligence” as its synthesized implicit modifiers.

If you still have jewel slots left, you can purchase rare jewels with any of these modifiers:

• % Increased Damage with Staves

• % Increased Cold Damage

• % Increased Critical Strike Chance with Cold Skills

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Cold Skills

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Elemental Skills

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage

• + to Strength and Intelligence

• + to Dexterity and Intelligence

• Damage Penetrates 1% Cold Resistance (corrupted implicit)

• % Reduced Effect of Curses on You (corrupted implicit)

• % Increased Damage (corrupted implicit)

• Corrupted Blood Cannot Be Inflicted on You (corrupted implicit)

Gems

Well, the gems that will be highlighted here are carefully selected to provide you with the best possible experience when playing the Icestorm Trickster. Unless you know what you are doing, we highly suggest that you do not change anything.

Weapon (Mapping)

• Cyclone

• Cast While Channeling Support (lvl 15)

• Energy Leech Support

• Power Charge on Critical Support

• Inspiration

• Icestorm (from weapon)

At the beginning of this build guide, we mentioned that you need to have two “The Whispering Ice” warstaves because one of them is going to have support gems meant for mapping, while the other is specifically just for bossing.

The setup above is the one you will use for clearing maps. Cyclone is an attack skill in Path of Exile that you will use to trigger Icestorm thanks to Cast While Channeling Support (CwC). Make sure that CwC stays at level 15. Otherwise, you are not going to maximize Icestorm’s potential.

Energy Leech Support not only gives you the ability to leech energy shield off of your enemies but grants you a “more damage” multiplier as well. Such multipliers in PoE actually give a whole lot more mainly because they are calculated multiplicatively rather than additively.

Power Charge on Critical Strike just gives you a comfortable and reliable way of generating Power Charges. This support gem also enhances Power Charges to give you 4% more damage per charge.

Inspiration Support is there to reduce the mana cost required to use Cyclone. You can even corrupt a level 20 Inspiration gem for a chance to raise its level to 21 for better results. 

Due to the mana changes implemented in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, a level 21 Inspiration Support definitely goes a long way.

Weapon (Bossing)

• Awakened Cold Penetration

• Intensify Support

• Power Charge on Critical Support

• Increased Critical Damage Support

• Inspiration Support

• Concentrated Effect

When you are taking on any bosses in Path of Exile, you can do a simple weapon swap by pressing “X” on the keyboard. The gems that you see here all enhance the damage and effects of Icestorm from The Whispering Ice.

Intensify Support and Concentrated Effect actually reduce the area of effect of Icestorm. Now, you might think of this as a disadvantage but that is far from the truth. If anything, the reduced AoE allows you to hit enemies on screen more consistently. Don’t worry, the smaller area of effect is compensated by the increased area damage.

Awakened Cold Penetration is a great support gem because it reduces the cold resistance of monsters that are hit by Icestorm’s projectiles. Moreover, you have a small chance of applying Cold Exposure on hit, which further increases the cold damage your enemies take.

Body Armor

• Ball Lightning (lvl 1)

• Awakened Hextouch Support

• Frostbite

• Punishment

• Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 1)

• Clarity

This is a pretty interesting setup that allows you to deal even more damage with your Icestorm. Every time you take a small amount of damage, the Ball Lightning spell gets cast automatically. And, since it is linked to Awakened Hextouch Support, your Frostbite and Punishment curse spells will be applied to all affected monsters as well. 

Frostbite reduces the cold resistance of enemies by 37% at max level, while Punishment makes cursed enemies take increased damage when they are below 50% of their max health. It is important to note that you have to anoint your amulet with Whispers of Doom or get “You Can Apply an Additional Curse” somewhere else.

The good thing about this gem setup is that you only need a five-linked armor for this one. The last gem slot is reserved for Clarity – an aura that grants mana regeneration when active.

Body Armor (w/ Anathema Equipped)

• Frostblink

• Elemental Weakness

• Temporal Chains

• Punishment

• Frostbite

• Awakened Hextouch Support

These are the gems that you would use if you have the Anathema equipped. Remember that Anathema raises your curse limit depending on your Maximum Power Charges. Because it is pretty easy to attain five Power Charges, you can put Elemental Weakness, Temporal Chains, Punishment, and Frostbite into the body armor.

Temporal Chains is a curse spell in PoE that severely reduces the action speed of affected monsters, thus making them easier to kill.

Elemental Weakness is another curse that decreases the elemental resistances of enemies afflicted by it.

Now, it is pretty cumbersome to activate all of these curses manually. But, the thing is, you do not even need to use them one by one! You simply cast Frostblink and enemies in close proximity will instantly be cursed by these spells thanks to Awakened Hextouch Support.

Helmet

• Cold Snap (lvl 1)

• Bonechill Support

• Awakened Unbound Ailments Support

• Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 1)

With the combination of gems in this setup, you will ensure that enemies have nowhere to run. Cold Snap is linked to Cast When Damage Taken Support so that every time you receive some damage, the spell skill gem is triggered automatically. This leaves a chilled ground that slows enemies down as long as they are standing on it.

Cold Snap synergizes really well with Unbound Ailments and Bonechill. These support gems increase the chill effect of Cold Snap, causing enemies to get hampered big time! Additionally, Bonechill Support is amazing because the monsters that are standing on the chilled ground take increased cold damage based on Cold Snap’s chill effectiveness.

Gloves

• Hatred

• Discipline

• Purity of Elements

• Enlighten Support

Hatred amplifies your cold damage, which is why it is one of the most vital auras that you should use for the Icestorm Trickster. 

Because your main defensive layer for this build is energy shield, you should boost that by activating Discipline as well.

Purity of Elements helps you cap your elemental resistances. More importantly, this aura makes you immune to elemental ailments, including Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite, thus greatly improving your survivability!

Enlighten Support just ensures that you still have mana left to cast Icestorm or Cyclone.

Boots

• Immortal Call

• Automation Support

• Assassin’s Mark

• Mark on Hit

One of the advantages of the Icestorm Trickster is that it is incredibly tanky for a Chaos Inoculation build. One of the reasons why is that you have Immortal Call. This is a guard skill in PoE that reduces the elemental and physical damage you take when it is active.

This build already has you activating a lot of spells, so you want to automate some of them to keep things simple. Luckily, GGG has added a new support gem that is aptly called Automation Support that does just that.

Due to Automation Support, you can raise Immortal Call’s level up to the maximum that your STR attribute allows. Do this for even more physical and elemental damage reduction!

You want to land critical hits using Icestorm as much as possible. One way to achieve that is by using Assassin’s Mark. This gives you a higher chance to critically hit monsters cursed by this Mark skill. Since we are all about automating certain processes, Assassin’s Mark should be linked to Mark on Hit Support.

Tattoos

Tattoos from a couple of leagues ago are back in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League! Having said that, which of them should you add to your build? Well, here are the ones that we recommend:

• Tattoo of the Arohongui Warrior

• 5% Increased Cold Damage

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout

• 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Warrior

• 3% Increased Maximum Energy Shield

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Shaman

• 8% Increased Mana Regeneration Rate

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Deathwarden

• 6% Reduced Effect of Curses on You

Passive Tree

Passive Tree for Icestorm Trickster

POB

Main Setup

Alternative Setup (with Anathema)

Final Thoughts

The Icestorm Trickster is still one of the best unique builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. Unlike most other builds that rely on specific active skill gems, this one counts on Icestorm – a spell skill that is granted by equipping The Whispering Ice unique warstaff.

This build has two different playstyles for a more fun and dynamic experience. When you are mapping, use Cyclone to trigger CwC and cast Icestorm in the process. The reason why you activate Icestorm this way is so that you circumvent its naturally long cast time.

When you are fighting bosses in PoE, you can swap to the other weapon with support gems that enhance the damage of Icestorm manifold. With this setup, you can make quick work of The Maven, Sirus, Searing Exarch, and the Eater of Worlds!

Thanks to the Trickster’s notable ascendancy passive skills, this build is incredibly tanky even though you have the Chaos Inoculation keystone allocated. The build can be expensive due to the fact that it is made as an INT stacker. But, once you have secured all the necessary pieces, using this build becomes a lot smoother.

So, there you have it! This is our comprehensive build guide for the Icestorm Trickster in Patch 3.24. We hope that you have learned so many things and that we have enticed you to try it out for yourself.

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

PROS

+Very tanky

+Has two different gem setups for a more dynamic gameplay

+Can eliminate bosses with ease

+Competent mapper

+Still pretty good in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Requires some pieces of gear to work

-Can be used early in a new league, though this is not meant as a league starter

-Weapon swapping is necessary depending on which types of content you are tackling