Howdy,so…played an aether Drain Essence build with the uroboruuk set,enjoyed it a lot,its proly my favorite spell
Now I wanna try the cold variant,and from what I see Reaper with chillwhisper seems to be the best option
However,personaly I find the lack of having an exclusive skill that actualy boosts your abilities to be weird
I was wondering,how viable would a cold Spellbinder work with star pact? it loses the blade spirit cold bonuses,and nights chill,but doesnt the ather conversion to cold from star pact affect the arcanist aether bonuses?
you can still use necro exclusive skills as reaper
nothing wrong with using harbinger or master of death, tho harbinger would probably be better overall if you lack speed or get weapon damage on DE
What I am mostly curious is if the star pact cold conversion affects the aether stuff from arcanist,if not i guess reaper is the only way to go,and likely just use master of death
depends what aether bonuses you mean, Star Pacts conversion work just like usual/regular global conversion
it converts any flat aether, that isn’t already converted, to cold,
the flat aether yes, conversion don’t convert global %dmg - that flat dmg also only applies to weapon attacks and skills using %weapon damage. So you’d need a DE modifier for that
I played cold DE spellbinder and gave up before reaching level 100. It was pretty miserable experience. At lower levels I had to focus on OFF and later on Trozan Sky Shard because DE alone wasn’t enough.
Also, lack of RR in both masteries is bad, while Reaper has a RR aura. You can probably make cold spellbinder work but DE won’t be your main skill but a filler/sustain skill.
Reaper is nice, because you have a RR aura so you can just drop your buffs and procs and then channel without interruptions while Blade Spirits provide additional damage and sustain.
Harbinger of Souls is not bad exclusive skill for a DE reaper since it provides casting speed and more ADctH which is important since you are not as tanky as spellbinder. Also, with Chillwhisper set, Ring of Anubar and Gargoyle Belt you will conver most of vitality and aether damage to cold. Throw in Gravetouch for extra tankiness and more RR and you’ll be set.
Amulet choices are interesting, too. You can get Conduit for hefty 24% weapon damage for DE, Deathbound Amethyst for more flat dmg for DE and chance to freeze enemies or Night’s Embrace for +1 to nightblade skills and more cold RR.
You’ll probably have some energy issues, though. Especially before you’ll get Chillwhisper. But you can probably get some pierce->cold items and Blade Spirits should carry you all the way to level 94.
Oh yeah,just looked in to gravetouch,it looks awsome,yeah thanks for all the info,looks like reaper is the must go for cold DE,it just has to much amazing stuff like nights chill,mercyless repertoire,elemental awakening anothr nice bonus to cold
I have 70 level Cold DE Reaper played it on Veteran and really, really liked it. Visuals, sustain, damage, mobility.
I’m mentioning it because I have a pretty nice devotion with Harp and Scythe but which make Energy issue disappear
I remember rushing for Harp while leveling even before RR devos but might have grabbed a couple devotion points from Crucible. https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23Oz1E2
I like not having to use Energy components or pumping my Spirit for Energy.
As far as itemization goes, mad_lee’s Succulent Sucker build is optimized imo. There’s is not much wiggle room here because there are clear BiSs for (almost) every slot.
I enjoy my cold DE spellbinder very much! It all happened when the Night Herald dropped for me.
If possible you should definitely farm a bunch of these for that!
Good luck and have fun!