[3.9] Bergerbrush's Lich Prince - CoC Vortex Trickster on an Extreme Budget (SSF VIABLE)

"Why are you playing Trickster and not Assassin?"

Assassin is great for Cast on Crit for many reasons. But I wanted to do something special and just not play the same damn ascendancy that everyone else is playing for this.

Also since we are focusing pretty heavily on using Vortex then Trickster is a great ascendancy for that with its focus on Damage over Time.

What's so special about Trickster then?

I wanted to focus this build on being Budget and being able to make a really easy character. Weave of the Arcane makes it so all movement skills cost no mana. Cyclone is a movement skill and therefor Cyclone and everything we add to Cyclone cost no mana. So I could literally play this character with 0 mana and being able to Cyclone and pew pew Ice Novas and Frostbolts all the time.

Then you also pair this with Swift Killer we get extra Frenzy/Power Charges. More damage per Frenzy/Power Charge and we generate both super easy by using a Movement Skill.. WHICH IS CYCLONE, WHICH COSTS 0 MANA. So we can just constantly Spin and constantly have max Frenzy/Power Charges. And the Shadow Character have easy access to both Frenzy and Power Charges with its location in the skill tree. So Power Charges gives us a great amount of critical stike chance and I currently have 7 Power Charges with this budget gear. And Frenzy Charges gives even more damage and I currently have 6.

Vortex Offense or ES/Evasion Defense

Then there is the remaining ascendancy choices that is up to you. Go with the Vortex offense from Patient Reaper and Prolonged Pain or perhaps a more overall even build with Patient Reaper and Harness The Void.

Or perhaps the much more defensive route with Ghost Dance and Escape Artist that will add a ton of defensive layers to your character.

There is multiple ways you can play this char which also makes it quite fun.

This video contains mostly everything that is already in the Guide such as Gearing, Links and me talking about the Build overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUGZ8ezKWG4&t=

5c Beltimber is a cheap easy way to get extra projectiles on our Frostbolts due to its Additional Projectiles Fired if used a movement skill recently and we use Cyclone constantly which is a movement skill so it shoots extra Frostbolts at all time. It also gives a nice added Evasion Rating bonus while moving and we are always moving with Cyclone.



1c Another great weapon we can use is the Widowmaker which basicly gives us some of the Assassin Ascendancy with Critical Strike Chance against enemies with Full Life. It also adds more general Crit Chance and Critical Strike Multiplier. This dagger will increase the amount of Ice Novas and Frostbolts that we proc. That along with the Critical Strike Multiplier will increase the overall damage output of the character. If you use this Dagger though you will lose the ability to use Leap Slam and will have to only use Flame Dash as your movement skill.



30c for 5-Link Carcass Jack Carcass Jack is pretty standard for most CoC builds. Life, Evasion, Energy Shield, Resists, Damage and AoE. What more can you ask for?



10-100c This Helmet I crafted myself by just using a few Frigid+Pristine fossils on a Shaped Lion Pelt. Shaped Lion Pelt wasn't really that expensive and Frigid fossils are cheap and Pristine isn't too expensive. Now I was lucky enough to hit Hypothermia, -9 Cold Res and Life together with good rolls. So this makes a great helmet for my Vortex to make it a Pseudo 5-Link. If you can't afford something like this, just get a Helmet with life/resists.



5c I tried many different things but figured that a Life/ES + Spell Damage+Critical Strike Chance for spells works best for this build. These shields are very cheap to pick up even with all these mods, and they give us a great amount of DPS and multiple defensive layers.



10c For the Amulet I went with a Life, Energy Shield, Resists amulet and crafted Global Critical Strike Chance, having Cast Speed or Critical Multiplier can also be good if you can find one within your budget.

I would annoint Arcane Potency or perhaps Heart of Ice depending on your preference and budget.



Cost Variate Now one of my rings I have a Shaped Diamond Ring with Assassin's Mark on hit. It's very important that we get Assassin's Mark Curse on Hit into our build. If you can't afford this ring then I would opt out of using Skitterbots and use Curse on Hit+Assassin's Mark+Herald of Ice until you can afford such a ring.

The other ring is another Diamond Ring with Life, Resists and some extra Energy Shield.



20-100c Mainly what you are looking for on Gloves is Life and Resists, I also went with Increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies for a little DPS boost.



20c A stygian vise with Life, Resists and perhaps some added Energy Shield. Then fill that jewel slot with a jewel that adds flat cold, life and perhaps onslaught for a quicker clear speed.



1c Mutewind adds so much damage, some resists, movement speed and unaffected against Chilled Groud for such a small price. Flat cold damage to spells, critical strike chance for spells is really nice for such a cheap item. But they don't come with any Life sadly.

If you want too you could get a pair of Rare Boots with life, resists and movement speed as well.


FLASKS



Nothing special really, Life Flask with Instant Health, a Diamond Flask and Atziri's are the main things you should look for. Also I am using a Quicksilver with Anti Freeze and you need any flask at all with Anti-Bleed as well.

Abyss Jewels



Nothing special here either, Flat Cold Damage with some Life and Onslaught chance on kill for a quicker map clear speed.

5 Link



Since we are not using Cospri's as Weapons then we need to use both Ice Nova and Frostbolt within the same setup here. Kinda sucks but otherwise we wont get the Frostbolts that shoot out along with our explody Ice Novas around our character.

It's up to you to use either Increased Critical Strikes as your 5th Support Gem or if you wanna use Increased Critical Damage Support.



The difference is that Critical Damage will make your Frostbolts, Ice Nova and Cyclone do more damage but it won't discharge as many. And Critical Strikes will proc more Frostbolts and Ice Novas.

I personally use Critical Strikes because it makes the build feel more pew pew with everything proccing more.

6 Link



The reason why I use Added Cold Damage as my 6th gem is once again we are using both Frostbolt and Ice Nova in our setup and we are also relying somewhat on our Cyclone DPS. Added cold adds the most damage for all 3 damage sources. You can otherwise use Hypothermia or Cold Penetration.

Auras



You can do this fine without a Enlighten Gem but you can't level up the Precision too much then. Otherwise, use a Enlighten Gem Level 2 or 3. Max level all Auras and use them all.

I would advice to use a Enlighten Gem and max level Precision because we need the Accuracy to hit 100% Hit Chance which is very important for anything that involves Cyclone.

Curse Setup



Here is a little tricky part. If you can't afford Curse Enemies with Assassin's Mark on Hit on your Ring. Then you will need to alter your Aura Setup a bit. You will need to use Curse on Hit, Assassin's Mark and Herald of Ice instead. Herald of Ice will then apply Assassin's Mark to everything that you hit.

Movement Skills



I personally LOVE LEAP SLAM. It's not dependent on Charges or a very large cooldown and can leap over obstacles. And whats so good here is that I am even using Flame Dash at the same time because sometimes it can be very good to insta use Flame Dash, because our character has a decent Cast Speed but a very low Attack Speed. So Leap Slam doesn't feel that good. And that's why having both can feel really nice.

4-Link Vortex



VERY IMPORTANT HERE IS THAT I AM USING THIS GEM SETUP DUE TO HAVING HYPOTHERMIA ON MY HELMET. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A CRAFTED HELMET LIKE ME THEN I SUGGEST USING HYPOTHERMIA INSTEAD OF SWIFT AFFLICTION!



Cast when Damage Taken



Pretty simple Cast When Damage Taken setup. We keep CWDT on Level 1 and level our Ice Golem to 3 and our Frost Bomb to 10.

VERY IMPORTANT TO KEEP ALL THESE GEMS AT THESE EXACT LEVELS! OTHERWISE THEY WILL NOT WORK.

Vaal Righteous Fire



I have a 3 linked Vaal Righteous Fire in my Weapon/Shield for extra damage as well on bosses. You just activate it for a nice little damage boost when ever you are going up against something stronger.

There are 2 different ways you can do this. Either the Damage way or the defensive way.


Damage Ascendancies

Weave of the Arcane->Swift Killer->Harness the Void->Prolonged Pain/Patient Reaper depending on preference.

Defensive Ascendancies

Weave of the Arcane->Swift Killer->Ghost Dance->Escape Artist

KILL ALL for 2 Skill Points

or

Save Alira for Resists + Critical Strike Multiplier(damage)

Budget Version

https://pastebin.com/pvSAUHLA

Expensive Version

https://pastebin.com/0kuJ87g2

Maxing out the Build

Double Cospri's Malice + The Pandemonius Jade Amulet ZULULULUL