[3.5] CheeQu's CoC Ice Nova Assassin - Up to 7m Shaper DPS + Amazing Clearspeed [In-Depth Guide]

The MOST IMPORTANT part while figuring out our gear, is to make sure our attack speed does not exceed the CoC trigger limit. CoC can trigger a spell reliably 6.06 times per second (it has a 165ms cooldown)** (increased by the "Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed" mod of at least 14% - keep reading to see why we need at least 14%)**.

Therefore, we need to make sure we hit enemies slightly slower than 6.06 times per second and NOT more than that, as it will reduce our DPS.

Cyclone hits 2 times per "Attack". So 3 Attacks per Second or slower is about the optimal attack speed we want (unless we have 14%+ Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed on our belt or boots).

** "WhAt aRe yOu talkIng AbOut?! The CoC cooldown is 150ms, not 165ms!!!" - Check This post by u/psychomap which explains why this is and which also explains why we need at least 14% Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed for it to have any effect whatsoever.

"How to achieve 3 Attacks per Second?" With a 8% or 9% Attack Speed (NOT more than that) Cospri's Malice, Starkonja's Head, no attack speed on the rest of the gear and with this specific tree, we should reach 3.0 Attacks per Second WHILE NO ONSLAUGHT FLASK IS USED (don't use it for single target. We can still use it for better clearspeed through packs though since we crit many enemies and which means attack speed doesn't matter that much. We can also just use a Basalt Flask instead).

Once we have at LEAST 14% Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed from our belt or boots, the maximum CoC triggers per second become 7.57, as explained by the post i linked above. So the optimal Attack Speed for Cyclone would be 3.75 Attacks per Second or slower.

To achieve that, we will upgrade to a 14% Attack Speed Cospri's Malice and also use our Onslaught Flask on bosses from now on. Simple as that!

If you want to keep using Basalt Flask instead of Onslaught, take the "Coordination" node in the passive skill tree and 8% Attack Speed (not more than that!) from rare gloves or a jewel. Coordination node and 8% Attack Speed with swords from a single jewel is the most cost-effective way to do this. (Big thanks to Aim_Deep for this idea!).

You can always check your Attack Speed at your hideout (Don't forget to select Cyclone. If you have around 2.0 Attacks per Second you are looking at Default Attack). Look for 3 Attacks per Second or 3.7 Attacks per Second with 14%+ Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed. Make sure to also test it with Onslaught Flask if you plan to use this flask.

◈ Stage 1: The Core - Once this gear stage is completed and assuming you're at a reasonable character level, you should be able to complete everything, including Uber Elder.

1) Gifts from Above - Very cheap item. Amazing Critical Strike Chance, survivability with Consecrated Ground and Increased Damage.

2) Lycosidae - Hits cannot be Evaded + some Life. No need to invest in Accuracy with this item.

3) Cospri's Malice (8% or 9% Attack Speed, NOT more! check spoiler above) - This item makes this build come alive. Increases our DPS by a mile and lets the fun begin.

4) Frozen Trail - Allows us to not socket GMP on Frostbolt and socket Life Leech instead (remember we need at least 2 Frostbolt projectiles for our Ice Nova). Should also be easy to get a useful corruption on this one. Also keep in mind that you don't actually have to allocate 40 Intelligence in radius, it just needs to be there.

We only need 1 Frozen Trail since we just need at least 2 Frostbolt projectiles at once for the interaction with Ice Nova. An extra Frozen Trail would be a waste of a jewel socket compared to a good rare jewel.

5) Starkonja's Head - Lots of Dexterity (needed to equip Cospri's Malice) and lots of Life. Using the less tanky Devoto's Devotion instead of Starkonja's Head for greater clearspeed is possible but be careful not to exceed attack speed limit for optimal CoC DPS (will be impossible to do without a 14%+ "Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed" on belt or boots - see the spoiler below for more information).

6) Loreweave - 80% Max Elemental Resistances is MANDATORY here, good Elemental Damage and Critical Strike Chance and Life rolls are also great, but of secondary importance. This is an amazing chest in every way.

7) The Pandemonius - Not really a "core" item, but a really amazing choice for this build. It greatly improves single target and offers perma blind on enemies increasing survivability.

- For Rares, try to have 90+ Life on all of them for this stage.
- For Jewel sockets, try to have 7% Increased Maximum Life and a Critical Strike Multiplier mod (best available jewel mods for this build are shown further below).

◈ Stage 2: The Overpowered - These upgrades will improve both Damage and Survivability. Great to have if you want to push for higher levels or farm End-Game Bosses.

8) Watcher's Eye jewel with "30 Energy Shield gained for each Enemy Hit while affected by Discipline - When you get this, drop Herald of Ice and socket Discipline. This will increase EHP by about 1000 and also improve sustain greatly, since Gain on Hit mods work in conjunction with Life Leech. Damage is very slightly reduced, but it is definitely worth it, as it will increase again with the next upgrade.

9) Mark of the Shaper - This replaces Gifts from Above. Combine it with an Elder ring (preferably a Coral ring with 90+ life). Compared to gifts from above, this ring increases both our damage output and also our EHP by a significant amount.

10) Rare Belt with Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed (at LEAST 14%, more than 14% doesn't matter and less than 14% is completely useless) - Improves damage even more. Check the important spoiler above to see why we need at least 14%.

11) Cospri's Malice (14% Attack Speed) - After getting Cooldown Recovery Speed, we now need this extra Attack Speed (again, check the spoiler above for more info). Sell your old Cospri's Malice and buy a new one.

- For Rares, try to increase to 105+ Life on all of them for this stage.
- For Jewel sockets, try to have 7% Increased Maximum Life + 2x Damage mods (best available jewel mods for this build are shown further below).

◈ Stage 3: God Tier - These next items are expensive and not necessary at all. If you want to have some fun and take this build to the extreme, this is how to do it:

12) Unnatural Instict + 2x Might of the Meek jewels - Once you get those you will have to change the tree. Click here for the lvl 98 Tree. All 3 of these jewels are socketed at the scion starting area, with Unnatural Instinct at the right side. Also note that Cospri's Malice needs to change again and has to be 13% Attack Speed or lower.

This whole change by itself will not affect Life or DPS. However, it will offer you:
A) 23% Attack speed and 16% Movement speed. That is basically the benefits of an onslaught flask (If you used Silver Flask you can now drop it for free and use Basalt Flask. If you used Basalt Flask already, then you benefit from the better clearspeed and from savings from attack speed investments which you can now respec).
B) 84% Elemental Resistances. This enables us to cap resistances while using an extra unique item, which means we get a big benefit from our next upgrade:

You can choose either #13 or #14 as the next upgrade, depending on if you want more damage or Vaal Pact for more sustain.

13) Bubonic Trails with 2 Abyssal Sockets - We lose 2 gem sockets (drop Unbound Ailments and Decoy Totem. Use Blasphemy ⊶ Enfeeble in Bubonic Trail. Discipline moves to a 4-link with the Leap Slam setup. Don't link Discipline in the Vortex setup as Arcane Surge will make Discipline reserve more Mana, so move Vortex setup to the shield). To make this an actual upgrade, make sure you get good Abyssal Jewels with 40+ Life + 2x Damage mods (best available Abyss jewel mods for this build are shown further below). Try to use at least one of each of these types of Abyss jewels: Hypnotic, Murderous, Searching. Do not use a Ghastly Eye jewel, these don't have anything good to offer and they are not worth it. If done correctly, these boots should increase damage by more than 10% and also Life by about 50.

14) Atziri's Acuity or High-end Crafted gloves with ~120% Increased Damage - To do this upgrade you will need to get lots of resistances from your 2 remaining rares, the belt and the ring (do not sacrifice the Cooldown Recovery Speed mod and the Shock nearby Enemies while Focused mod or this won't be worth it). From these two combined you will need about 70% Fire Resistance, 70% Lightning Resistance and 40% Cold Resistance. Ideally you want your resistances to be the same for the best use of the Wise Oak Flask. It shouldn't be too hard to achieve considering you've spent so many exalts already! If you choose Atziri's Acuity, it will give you the benefit of Vaal Pact for even more sustain and also offer some Critical Strike Chance. This is my recommended item since damage is crazy high already.
If you want even more damage though, you can craft or find rare gloves with: 1) ~90 Life, 2) (30–50)% increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies, 3) (24–28)% increased Damage during any Flask Effect, 4) (37–43)% increased Damage while Leeching and the hybrid mod: 5) (20–22)% increased Elemental Damage if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently + (15–16)% increased Global Critical Strike Chance.

- For rares, again you want 105+ Life on all of them.
- For jewels, you can spend even more exalts to get 7% Increased Maximum Life + 3x Damage mods (best available jewel mods for this build are shown further below).
- Other than that, if you have some Mirrors laying around, getting crazy corruptions or even double corruptions on your items (like +1 to socketed gems loreweave, Enfeeble on hit Atziri's Acuity), is the last thing to improve on.

Warlord's Mark offers Life/ Mana Leech and Endurance Charge generation if you kill enemies.

I don't like this curse in this build because with the Cospri's Malice setup we can leech Life fast and reliably, Mana isn't really a problem and most importantly, the Endurance Charges are not there when we actually need them (against bosses). So this Curse doesn't offer much at all compared to Enfeeble, which increases survivability by a lot in every situation.

The only benefit of such a ring would be that you don't have to reserve Mana for a curse, allowing you to increase your damage by using something else and by replacing Life Leech gem in Cospri's Malice with Elemental Focus. But again, that comes at the cost of much needed survivability, so think carefully before dropping Enfeeble.

Cospri's trigger cooldown is the same as CoC, meaning we can trigger 6 spells per second. We don't need 6 Frostbolt casts per second, however. If 2 spells are socketed, the trigger will alternate between them, resulting in 3 Frostbolt and 3 Ice Nova triggers per second. This Ice Nova - like our main one in the chest - also interacts with the Frostbolt projectiles and is cast 2 times per trigger. This combination offers way better damage, as well as more hits per second which is important for reaching our maximum Life Leech Rate faster (9 hits per second with this combination vs 6 hits per second without Ice Nova).