Cospri's Assassin is not a beginner budget friendly build.
There are cheaper routes you can take to get it started, however I do not recommend this build as your starting character. The build could cost you anywhere from 100 Chaos up to 600 Chaos or more, depending on the league and how much you're willing to spend. Build can make use of several expensive unique items, but it can start to function with only two. It utilizes Cospri's Malice sword to cast
Freezing Pulse and
Frostbolt on critical hit, as well as a 6l
"Cast On Critical Strike" setup.
Level 92 passive skill tree
here.
CORE UNIQUE ITEMS
These are our "mandatory" unique items, " " because nothing is mandatory in PoE. First one is pretty obvious since its the item the build revolves around.
Lycosidae is important because of its
"Your hits can't be evaded" property. Cast on Crit builds usually need to invest into accuracy rating to reliably proc their spells which can be tricky and expensive late game since it would be yet another stat we want from gear. And this build loves a lot of stats. So Instead I went with this shield to never have to worry about my accuracy rating. This shield is used solely for that property.
We also need 2x
First Snow and 2x
Frozen Trail jewels. They will add another 4 projectiles to our freezing pulse and frostbolt spells without the need for "Greater Multiple Projectiles Support" skill gem.
OTHER UNIQUE ITEMS TO CONSIDER
( In order of importance )
Strkonja's is pitch perfect for this build. Every single stat on it is useful. Attack Speed and +25 global crit chance both increase our Freezing Pulse and Frostbolt proc rates. Damage reduction, evasion on low life and evasion are nice bonuses. The build has no built in leech and it relies on
Life Leech Support skill gem socketed into Cospri's ( See LINKS further below for more info ) and
Warlord's Mark +
Blasphemy setup for our life and mana sustain, so any defences are welcome. If you can't afford this item you can always use a cheaper
Rat's Nest that will pretty much provide same stats minus the life roll. Life is, however, pretty important so it will be a bit of a handicap. I would prioritize getting Starkonja's as your first investment.
This is a very cheap ring that allows us to have double curse setup in our blasphemy. Since we cant get that from the passive tree, I went with this ring as a cheap option, but you will need at least level 2
Enlighten to have enough unreserved mana for your "trigger skill" ( Skill that we use to generate critical hits and proc our spells, not used to deal damage. ) and movement setup. Additional resistances and mana gained on kill are great bonuses for our defences and clearing maps. Grab one of these as soon as possible. Again; very cheap.
Now we come to the expensive part. Belly of the Beast is a great item that fits many builds so getting this chest as one of your first "bigger" unique items is a good investment. For this build in particular we need a 6 link chest for our "Cast on Crit" setup and getting the 6 link Belly could cost you 5 - 6 Exalted Orbs. To add to that we need 3 blue and 3 green sockets, which can be tricky to get and further increase the cost of the build. You can get this chest with any combination of links and socket number and start working towards 6 linking it as you obtain currency. In the meantime this build will work perfectly well with
Tabula Rasa. Slam your "CoC" ( I see what you did there Martin. ) setup into Tabula and you're good to go for mapping. Full skill gem links explained further down in the guide.
This necklace is our "end game fantasy" item. It is a huge damage boost to the build as well as a great defensive item with its additional "chill on hit" and "blind chilled enemies on hit". Cold penetration is amazing, it will help us chill and freeze most map bosses while increasing our damage at the same time. This will then help to blind bosses and when you finally equip this item the build comes fully together and with some skill you can tackle most of the end game. I say most because this build has some apparent weaknesses. For example Uber Atziri might be a challenging boss to kill with this build.
Now personally I am still working towards these boots, and debating if I should even get them. Don't get me wrong, these boots are insane for this build. But with a price tag of about 3 Exalts I'm not quite sure yet if I'm willing to sink that currency into getting one of these or just do the
The Pale Court in hopes of them dropping. Besides I'm currently working on other builds so sooner or later I will be doing that map. If you can get them, by all means, go for it. They will greatly improve your initial damage by providing you all of your power charges when you proc one. It will also increase your damage by a decent amount per power charge and we do use 7 power charges ( 3 base, 3 from the passive tree and one from Assassin ascendancy ).
For our rare items we want the usual stuff. Boots with movement speed, life and resistances. For gloves get good
Fingerless Silk Gloves with life and resistances.
Same for belt. For our other ring, we want a good
Opal Ring. You can craft a good Opal Ring with
Deafening Essence of Hatred. This could get expensive so keep that in mind. Alternatively use a decent rare
Diamond Ring.
Jewel stats priority looks something like this: % Increased Cold Damage, Damage, Projectile Damage, % increased Global Critical Strike Multiplier (or with spells, cold spells ... ), % increased attack speed ( with one handed melee weapons, swords ... ), %increased life and additionally any stats or resistances you're missing from your gear.
ASCENDANCY
ASSASSIN
Normal Lab: Unstable Infusion
Cruel Lab: Deadly Infusion
Merciless Lab: Ambush
Eternal Lab: Assassinate
This is the way I went about it. There is no clear cut best way. Though I do strongly suggest you rush Deadly Infusion as soon as possible.
FLASKS
I went with
Chemist's Diamond Flask of Warding; for my crit and curse removal,
The Wise Oak ( make sure cold resistance is your highest of the three in order to get additional 15% cold penetration ),
Ample Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline; for movement speed,
Seething Divine Life Flask of Heath; for my bleed removal/immunity and
Surgeon's Basalt Flask of Heat; for my freeze removal and immunity.
If you don't have The Wise Oak, grab
Atziri's Promise its cheap and it works.
LINKS
In Cospri's Malice: Freezing Pulse + Frostbolt + Life Leech
Shield: Herald of Ice + Onslaught, Lighting warp ( Lightning Warp for when you need to go over obstacles, chasms etc. )
4 link:Cast When Damage taken (lvl 5) + Immortal Call (lvl 7) + Increased Duration, Summon Ice Golem ( lvl 20, self-cast this when you want it )
4 link: Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks + Power Charge on Critical + Fortify ( this is your movement skill that also keeps your Fortify up )
4 link: Blasphemy + Frostbite + Warlords Mark + Enlighten ( at least lvl 2)
6 link: Cyclone + Cast on Critical Strike + Freezing Pulse + Frostbolt + Increased Critical Strikes + Hypohermia ( You can use any melee skill instead of Cyclone, this is just your "trigger")
Use Tabula Rasa until you can get a 6l rare or Belly of The Beast. If you don't have Tabula, get one or drop Hypothermia out of your setup. But seriously, get Tabula. You can farm
Humility divination cards to get it. It is also quite cheap. You will need it for levelling other characters as well as starting maps with some builds. It is always good to have one Tabula around.
CONCLUSION
( And my thoughts after reaching level 92 )
This is a super fun build for mapping, it will reliably clear all tiers of maps and it its capable of doing Guardians. I downed white, yellow and red tier Elder while progressing trough maps. Red tier was a bit tricky but I managed to pull it off with one death. While mapping it clears the entire screen and your frostbolts continue to fly off-screen freezing and shattering monsters. The shatter effect is very satisfying. It clears maps super fast and its a decent option for "magic find" setup. I did full magic find and comfortably cleared up to tier 10 maps. In its full potential with all the gear ( excluding Inya's Epiphany boots) I had little trouble on even the highest tiers of maps. Guardians and some bosses may be a challenge though and I didn't try "Uber Atziri".
Overall I am quite happy with what the build can do and it more than paid for itself. I'm definitely keeping this build around in my roster for a while.
If you have any question regarding the build or the game in general feel free to ask in the comments below.
If you would like to see more builds, guides and everything PoE related smack that up vote and follow buttons and ill see you guys in the lands of Wraeclast.
GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN
@elythies
