[question]The best cold-focused class?

[*Yuki*]

For some reasons (mostly color scheme and tactics, cuz of freeze), I always used to prefer characters who utilize cold. But who will be the best (e.g able to kill OP bosses such as avatar of mogdrogen on ultimate/farm dungeons without issues), for that case?
I mean - theoretically, even the blademaster can be turned into walking freezer with right equipment and constellations. But will it be more effective, than "classic" (e.g bleed/physical damage-based) builds?

[LotusBlade]

It doesnt really matter which skills or classes you choose. Tho i tryed playing blademaster into cold but didnt liked it. His kit turned out to be weird. But hey, i havent ever reached ultimate...

I found out that even a single item in Grim Dawn is capable of changing your build (not even mentioning legendary items, lol). I have found 100% aether 2-handed weapon and, surprisingly, it has 5k-7k more dmg compared to most other weapons i found during last 20 hours of playing. My hero started as summoner, turned out to be some sort of melee fighter with lots of passives from necromancer + soldier tree.

[Azunai]

nightblade and arcanist have cold damage related skills. occultist or shaman would also be somewhat useful as supporting masteries (both have elemental resistance reduction skills)

i think in the vanilla game (no expansion) spellbreaker (NB+arcanist) was certainly among the better cold damage builds. NB has blade burst, ring of frost and shadow strike (+nightfall) as cold damage skills and also execute (if you dualwield). plus the veil of shadow + nights chill aura that reduces cold resistance and does frostburn damage over time. arcanist has star pact (exclusive skill) that boosts cold damage and adds some phys > cold conversion and cooldown reduction (very useful since the NB cold damage skills all have cooldowns) and some stuff that's always nice to have like elemental balance (crit damage), maivens sphere (damage absorb), mirror (immunity) and inner focus (%OA). sky shards is also an option as an additional cold (+lightning) damage spell.

would probably work all right with spectral longswords or similar stuff during levelling and later you can farm loxmere daggers or farm a soulrend (steps of torment endboss) and play it as a 2h build

[Valkez]

If you have AoM, I personally love dualwield Korba Trickster. It's not very flashy (unless you consider blue pools of death on the ground as "flashy"), but it rocks an amazing dps.
Don't expect it to kill Ultimate Mogdrogen though... but frankly, I have yet to hear of a legit build capable of soloing him.

[*Yuki*]

Originally posted by Valkez:

I have yet to hear of a legit build capable of soloing him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl3YeqSKOCQ

dunno if its legit tho - I see some CDs, looking like Dryad's Blessing, but linked build doesnt feature this constellation

[Atomic Kid]

i'd do some combo of arcanist/nightblade, both come with cold moves though you have to pick one of them to get your main move to be cold and other to back it up..

you dont have to pick both of them, as i seen trickster (nightblade+shaman), druid (arcanist+shaman) work just cause wind devil from shaman lowers all elemental resists. And from what i noticed spellbreaker (arcanist+nightblade) though handing you a ton of cold moves from both to give you a ton of ice spells to use is one of the most expensive chars to gear and if you hate having many different moves to use like most spellcasters it might not fit your playstyle esp if you pefer less moves kinda chars...

[Moonlight Knight]

I've done very well with a lightning/cold-flavored Infiltrator (Inquisitor+Nightblade), but that requires AoM.

[Atomic Kid]

ya inquistor has rune of hagarrad which is one of the best cold based moves in the game though in many builds i see it used cause you can convert the pierce or cold to nearly all other dps types in the game (minus bleed) and it still doing many, many hits, and inquister has word of pain for a fast resist debuff though only for the pierce part of roH (rune of hagarrd) and chaos and aether if you somehow convert the damage of that move to one of those 2 elements..

and inquistor has aura of censure for a resist down if you are close, though its an exclusive skill and if your char is too squishy, maybe another excluisve skill might be better...many times you'd pick another exclusive if you cannot handle being too close to the enemy...

and if you use guns i guess chilling rounds might be a decent cold based attack though if you are gunning with 2h or dual wield you prob are grabbing all the gun passives cause they help with aoe...

[Valkez]

Originally posted by *Yuki*:

Originally posted by Valkez:

I have yet to hear of a legit build capable of soloing him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl3YeqSKOCQ

dunno if its legit tho - I see some CDs, looking like Dryad's Blessing, but linked build doesnt feature this constellation

Ya, I didn't take into consideration the chinese (boring) meta that spams DA and becomes impossible to hit. I believe Crate "fixed" that with the last update, when they capped the chance to be missed at 60%. If you want to try it though, all you have to do is spam Ugdenbog Leathers, Stalwart prefixes on your offset gear and get the DA nodes of Wolverine, Solemn Watcher and Obelisk; it applies to any build really.

[Faust Wither]

Originally posted by *Yuki*:

e.g able to kill OP bosses such as avatar of mogdrogen on ultimate/farm dungeons without issues

only "the boring build" capable such feat with ease. such as cabalist, warlock and every class that has soldier in it.

[Archimedex]

I started making a NightBlade + Necromancer.. I realized soon enough Necromancer doesn't EXIST. It's some nonsense DLC class. I'm lost now.. The Necro basically is giving NB life leech.. I have no idea how else to get life leech. NB + Arcanist is like Damage + Damage. You end up with a glass cannon. What else can work with cold damage tho?.. that also offers significant life leech? You can't play a melee build without a stupid amount of life leech.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by Archimedex:

] You can't play a melee build without a stupid amount of life leech.

yea because no melee/Nightblade has ever survived with passive/global ADCtH from items/components and devotions, ever
much less so "direly needed" just for campaign clear
if you're looking for passive/global leech look at stuff like Restless Remains and Haunted Steel Components. Bat, Ghoul and Scales, Fox, Toad and Unknown Soldier devotions offers it too
Nightblade gets leech on Shadowstrike modifier Nightfall, and Phantasmal Blades' Heart Seeker. Overall you should have no problem dealing enough dmg and having/getting enough sustain from what's available to you without going too much out of your way
Cold Trickster (shaman+nightblade) works fairly well, and you get wendigo totem support sustain if you really want it on top of resist reduct from wind devil

(PS, just buy the expansions, they are awesome and add alot to the game/are true oldschool expansions)