[1.1.8.1] Colderos - 2H melee / 2H ranged cold Primal Strike Trickster, SR 80+

INTRODUCTION

The idea behind this build is to make cold Primal Strike work both as melee and ranged. It even works as a switchable melee/ranged build. It requires some greens because of lower item support. I chose Trickster because of cold damage support. As a melee weapon I chose Bane of the Winter King and as a ranged weapon I chose Northern Wyrm. Because I have recently cracked the code for aether PS, it was relatively easy to make cold PS as well. Build has good lifesteal but it is necessary to have large enough health pool to absorb attacks. All versions (melee/ranged/switchable) can do SR 80 relatively easily.

I have other Primal Strike builds here. I have other cold melee builds here. I have other ranged builds here. All my builds are here.

Here is a list comparing all my Primal Strike builds from best to worst. All are at least SR 65-66 capable.
  1. Dragonborn – great build, 2H melee physical PS, good offensively and very powerful defensively (best of my PS builds)

  2. Thor – great build, 2H melee lightning PS, offensively similar to Dragonborn, defensively noticably weaker than Dragonborn

  3. Aetheros Ranged – great build, 2H ranged aether PS, offensively a little weaker than Dragonborn, defensively a little weaker than Thor

  4. Aetheros – great build, 2H melee aether PS, offensively a little better than Aetheros Ranged (and a little weaker than Dragonborn), defensively a little weaker than Aetheros Ranged

  5. Colderos – great build, 2H melee cold PS, offensively noticably better than Dragonborn (best of my PS builds), defensively a little weaker than Aetheros

  6. Colderos Ranged – great build, 2H ranged cold PS, offensively a little weaker than Colderos, defensively a little weaker than Colderos (actually only when facetanking bosses otherwise you can take out enemies from distance)

  7. Aether Primate – great build, 2H melee aether PS, offensively similar to Aetheros Ranged, defensively a little weaker than Colderos Ranged

  8. Viteros – good build, 2H melee vitality PS, offensively a little weaker than Aetheros Ranged, defensively similar to Colderos Ranged

  9. Meme Striker – good build, 2H melee lightning PS, offensively similar to Colderos, defensively a little weaker than Viteros

  10. Chaotic Primate – good build, 2H melee chaos PS, offensively a little weaker than Viteros, defensively noticably weaker than Meme Striker

  11. Mental Primate Druid – good build, 2H melee elemental PS, offensively a little weaker than Chaotic Primate, defensively a little weaker than Chaotic Primate

  12. Storm Blitzer – OK build, 1H melee + shield lightning PS, offensively a little weaker than Mental Primate Druid, defensively a little better than Chaotic Primate

  13. Mental Primate Conjurer – OK build, 2H melee elemental PS, offensively a little better than Mental Primate Druid (but a little weaker than Chaotic Primate), defensively a little weaker than Mental Primate Druid

  14. Storm Knight – OK build, 1H melee + shield lightning PS, offensively similar to Storm Blitzer, defensively similar to Mental Primate Druid

  15. Savage Stormrender – weaker build, DW melee lightning PS on cooldown + Savagery, offensively noticably weaker than Storm Knight, defensively similar to Storm Knight

GRIMTOOLS

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/b28mxMKV pure melee version

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/xZyQ8krZ pure ranged/switchable version

Crafting bonuses on amulet and gloves are to stun resistance. Ranged version has also crafting bonus on weapon to stun resistance. You want affixes on greens to OA, DA and resistances. Most affixes are interchangable. Prefix bonus for PS on medal is not necessary (I just chose it as the best option). In switchable version you can’t use aura on the Winter King weapon (it would be a hassle to turn it on after each change).

Stats of the build for pure melee

OFFENSE

nice DPS 200k - 240k

OK OA - around 2900 OA

up to 55 DA reduction to enemies from Annihilation

high critical damage 75 %

good cold resistance reduction from Veil of Shadow, Murmur, Wind Devil, Ravager’s Deathgaze and Revenant - up to -144 %

damage from devotions – Blizzard, Murmur and Revenant

DEFENSE

great life close to 18000 HP

OK DA - around 2900 DA

up to 151 OA reduction to enemies from Murmur and Annihilation

good lifesteal 30 %

good CC resistances with crafting bonuses to stun res

reasonably overcapped resistances

good physical resistance 28 %

OK armor – close to 2100

at least +3 to all max resistances

Serenity

Ghoul

Stats of the build for pure ranged

OFFENSE

nice DPS 160k - 190k

OK OA - around 2950 OA

up to 55 DA reduction to enemies from Annihilation

high critical damage 71 %

good cold resistance reduction from Veil of Shadow, Murmur, Wind Devil, Ravager’s Deathgaze and Revenant - up to -132 %

damage from devotions – Blizzard, Murmur and Revenant

DEFENSE

great life above 18000 HP

OK DA - above 3000 DA

up to 151 OA reduction to enemies from Murmur and Annihilation

good lifesteal 30 %

good CC resistances with crafting bonuses to stun res

reasonably overcapped resistances

OK physical resistance 22 %

OK armor – around 2150

at least +3 to all max resistances

Serenity

Ghoul

image from the game for melee version with passive buffs

Colderos%201

image from the game for melee version with passive buffs + Lethal Assault and Blood Pact

Colderos%202

image from the game for ranged version with passive buffs

Colderos%20Ranged%201

image from the game for ranged version with passive buffs + Lethal Assault and Blood Pact

Colderos%20Ranged%202

SR, CRUCIBLE

I play SR with camera pointed away from enemies and I try my builds only in SR 65-66 and SR 80. I play around 10 SR runs per character.

This build does SR 65-66 very easily. All versions can even do SR 80 relatively easily. No boss is a problem. Melee version is a little safer in SR. I don’t push my characters higher but it can go higher if you are a skilled player.

I don’t play Crucible so I don’t have a time number for it.

Images from SR 80

3 images for melee version



3 images for ranged version



4 Likes

Another great build to play. Wish i got more time to grind to test :slight_smile:
Do you have any plan on making a retaliation build in the future?

I have never played any retal build. I don’t even know much about the rules they follow.

Rules of retaliation are similar to pet builds. You don’t care about % all damage or % physical as example but for flat and % retaliation. Rest is survivality and damage balance, like everything else in other builds.

You can try to make lightning -> physical retal conversion, warlord and fevered rage witchblade will work well. Concept like that was not posted yet and chance I’m going to do that is not really high.

I have never played any pet build either seriously (I tried one and it was really boring). What about crits and OA with retal? I always see low OA on those builds.

Retaliation damage added to attack can crit from % WD skills (like counter strike or honor shotgun), I like high OA on retals because it increase you overall kill times significant, not only because of few % of crit but with RF on warlord as example you can apply your rata more or if you use honor relic you are guaranted to not miss any missile from it so your burst damage is huge.

Low OA/high DA (even overcapping 3.6k DA into like 3.8-4k for DA shredders) is worth only if you want to climb way over sr 100. On something like 75-76 or till 100 you can have as well 0 DA, no difference because retals got usually much more defensive mechanics and you do not taking damage anyway, no matter if you got crit every hit or from time to time.

One of the best method to test retaliation damage I found is just Ravager because he is hard and fast meele hitter. Good retaliation should have 100% consistency there and decreasing time from like 1:50 to 1:30 is very visible both in SR and crucible.

Why? With other builds you do. The whole concept just seems totally broken to me. Just like OFF permafreeze on hourglass (that should not exist) or immortal vit casters.

Just shield block, armor, resistances, damage absorbtion, damage reduction. You can see in my witchblade thread how I pass sr 100 without troubles, all superbosses (including Crate tanked 100-0 without moving) and no buffs crucible with extra spawn with 2.5k DA and fevered rage (so effective DA is under 2k?).

You can try to build one just for experience, witchblade setups are more fun than warlord or warder because of fevered rage which is suggested here, game is superfast with it.

And this permafreeze is absolutely crushed just by one mutstor or Moosilauke.
And, actually, it works only with 1 set - so, it’s not THAT broken.

1 Like

I still think it shouldn’t exist.

i’ve copied the exact same build but all lightning dmg from primal strike seems to be 100% vitality due to rylok’s mark. how does double conversion work since you get 100% lightning --> cold from conduit?

It gets halved - 50% cold, 50% vitality which means that rylok mark is suboptimal here.
It would be far better taking 2 Anubars rings for PS bonuses.

thanks for your response. well, alkamos rings seem to be pretty strong aswell since this build needs AS or am i mistaken? Also what would you recommend exchanging for rylok’s mark?

This one have Primal Strike modifiers and it’s faction recipe bought.

https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/11578

Also Dark Dreams is dope, since it will improve your Veil of Shadow.

Or try your RNG god rabbit leg with Badge of mastery for +5 PM :stuck_out_tongue:.

Thanks Nery :slight_smile: i also thought about dark dreams but then OA suffers a bit which i don’t like to see^^

can this build take on ravager of mind? or do you still need to modify it

You can change medal for Ilgor and you will get slightly more dps 5-10k, so not that great difference. In my aether PS build there was discussion around this topic.

This medal is again 5-10k better in DPS but OA gets crushed with it.

Badge of mastery has bad other bonuses, not worth it.

No, it can’t.

I made some changes to this build. More ADCtH with ± the same DPS.