Frost Blades
Raider-Ranger build

Updated for Patch 3.5

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

Estimated budget: medium

Frost Blades is an amazing Attack Gem that can be used as early as level 1. It is a ranged projectile based attack that requires a melee weapon. It provides incredible AoE. It is amazing for leveling as well as allows extremely fast map clearing. Provided you can afford high-end gear (would assume a 30+ Exalted Orbs budget) you will be also able to take Shaper and Uber Atziri down.

For the full list of our Path of Exile builds you can visit the following article: Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List

1. Gameplay

This build should be used mainly for extremely fast map farming (mid to high tier depending on your gear and level). The gameplay mechanics are pretty much the same starting from level 1. You use Frost Blades as your main ranged attack that deals incredible AoE damage. Your goal is to stack added physical damage on every possible piece and manage a reasonable Life pool.

Full gameplay video: 0:07 Tier 13 Arsenal Map 2:55 Tier 14 Colosseum Map 6:05 Tier 16 Pit of the Chimera

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

This build uses Frost Blades - the same Cold damage attack starting from level 1. This allows us to basically go for the Final Skill Tree right away, prioritizing Physical/Cold damage and Life nodes. Below you will find several interesting unique items for the leveling phase

Suggested leveling gem setups:

Frost Blades
	Frost Blades - your main DPS ranged attack
	Added Cold Damage Support - grants amazing damage boost to Frost Blades. If you can afford it early on, buy the Gem with high quality
	Multistrike Support - mandatory support Gem for the Frost Blade setup
	Life Leech Support - leech Gems are a good choice for a 6L Tabula Rasa setup
	Mana Leech Support - same as above

Utility gems
	Herald of Ice - grants added Cold Damage and causes AoE explosions on killing Frozen enemies
	Whirling Blades - your primary mobility skill
	Ancestral Protector - Totem skill which increases your Attack Speed

Bandits:

Both killing all the Bandits for two additional Skill Points and helping Alira for Mana Regeneration, Critical Damage Multiplier, and Elemental Resistances are good options.

Leveling Skill Trees:

32 Points Skill Tree
Priorities: 1) Finesse 2) Flash Freeze 3) Winter Frost 4) Fangs of Frost

72 Points Skill Tree
Follow the path up from the bottom right. Prioritizing 1) Claws of the Magpie 2) Soul Raker 3) Forces of Nature and all the nodes towards the 4)Coordination

Recommended leveling items:

Last Resort - amazing starting weapon, will grant a lot of DPS until you reach a higher level to swap for better DPS weapons
+3 Life gained for each Enemy hit by Attacks 25% increased Attack Speed when on Low Life (80-100)% increased Physical Damage Adds 2 to 10 Physical Damage 100% increased Claw Physical Damage when on Low Life 100% increased Accuracy Rating when on Low Life

Praxis - in order to maintain your mana this ring (or even two of them) might be required. After all, you won't get much Mana/Mana Regeneration from your Passive Skill Tree
+(20-25) to maximum Mana +(30-60) to maximum Mana (3-6) Mana Regenerated per second -(8-4) to Mana Cost of Skills 8% of Damage taken gained as Mana over 4 seconds when Hit

Karui Ward - great damage and movement speed boost
+(20-30) to Dexterity +(20-30) to Strength +100 to Accuracy Rating 30% increased Projectile Speed 10% increased Movement Speed 30% increased Projectile Damage

Tasalio's Sign - if you can manage your Mana without the Praxis Ring, it's recommended to grab two of those. Your DPS will skyrocket after equipping those
+(20-30)% to Cold Resistance Adds (7-10) to (15-20) Cold Damage to Spells and Attacks +(200-300) to Evasion Rating 50% chance to Avoid being Chilled 10% chance to Freeze Adds 40 to 60 Cold Damage against Chilled Enemies

Ewar's Mirage - an amazing weapon for leveling a Frost Blades characeter. This is not a claw though and you might want to postpone the claw nodes in your Skill Tree until you actually start using Claws
+25% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier (40-55)% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Adds 1 to (45-55) Lightning Damage (16-22)% increased Attack Speed Attacks Chain an additional time when in Main Hand Attacks have an additional Projectile when in Off Hand

4. Final Skill tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

115 Points Final Skill Tree
115 Points Path of Building(PoB) link
First, you should grab two Jewel nodes on the right side and socket two Fight for Survival in them. Later on simply follow the Tree to the Duelist nodes (mainly for Dervish, Bravery, Art of the Gladiator).  Final steps will be taking the remaining Life nodes, Jewel Sockets, and Claws of the Pride and Vaal Pact

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Quartz Infusion
2. Avatar of the Veil
3. Rapid Assault
4. Avatar of the Chase

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Lunaris 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%, 1% increased Movement Speed for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%

Minor God: Soul of Gruthkul 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each Hit you've taken Recently up to a maximum of 5%

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Frost Blades setup
	Frost Blades - your main DPS attack. It chains to enemies covering nearly entire screen around you. The attack itself has a small range, however, the Frost Blades hitting your main target spread to other targets behind it, as well as chaining to then. This provides amazing area coverage and damage at the same time
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - great DPS boost. With this build, you will deal only Cold elemental damage
	Multistrike Support - grants additional Attack Speed (extremely important for Frost Blade's DPS) and your attack repeats two additional times
	Melee Physical Damage Support - grants extra Physical damage to Frost Blades which is converted entirely to Cold elemental damage
	Ruthless Support - grants flat attack damage bonus with each point of quality, as well as amazing damage boost with every third attack. Considering this Raider's attack speed this procs frequently giving amazing results
	Ice Bite Support - the flat damage increase is higher than the Cold Penenetration's Support Gem. You won't benefit from the frenzy charge generation aspect of this Gem though because of the Raider's Ascendancy nodes

[MOBILITY] Whirling Blades setup
	Whirling Blades - your main mobility skill. It grants also extra damage reduction from Fortify buff so try to proc the on-hit effect
	Faster Attack Support - attack speed makes you move faster when using Whriling Blades
	Fortify Support - grants a powerful damage reduction buff

[UTILITY/CURSE] Frostbite / Assassin's Mark setup
	Orb of Storms - this spell is used to apply your Curse
	Curse on Hit Support - will make Orb of Storms apply your supported Curse
	Frostbite - our suggested "farming" Curse. Will grant additional chance to freeze monsters and reduce their cold resistance
	(optional)Assassin's Mark - second Curse option. This one is recommended for boss fights as you won't be able to freeze them anyway
	Power Charge on Critical Support -a great addition to this setup. Orb of Storms Critical Hits will generate Power Charges increasing your overall DPS

[UTILITY] Immortal Call setup
	Cast when Damage Taken Support - keep this Gem at level 1 in order to make it cast supported Gems more frequently
	Immortal Call - will grant brief immortality - do not upgrade above level 3
	Frost Bomb - will lower the affected enemies' Cold Resistance with each "tick". Do not upgrade it above level 10

[UTILITY] Vaal Haste
	Vaal Haste - the extra buff for Boss fights
	Increased Duration Support - increases the duration of Vaal Haste

[AURA] Herald of Ice + Hatred
	Herald of Ice - grants additional Cold Damage
	Hatred - even more Cold Damage

[UTILITY] Golem and Ancestral Protector
	Ancestral Protector
	Summon Lightning Golem - this is our recommended Golem for this build which increases your Attack Speed
	Culling Strike Support - your Golem and Totem will be able to finish off low Life monsters with this Gem socketed
	Faster Attack Support

5. Gear Setup

This is the most interesting part of every Odealo's Crafty Guide. You will find all the recommended gear with minimum stat requirements for each item. This build in total shouldn't cost more than 10-15 Exalted Orbs (assuming you go for the six-linked Body Armour).

Our recommended gear pieces will always:

1. Cap your resistances
2. Grant sufficient Life pool for mapping
3. Give you more than enough damage to mid/high tier map farming
4. Save you at least a couple of hours on planning your build!

(Helmet) Abyssus - grants a terrific damage boost. And since this build is not exactly the tanky type, you will have to learn kiting and positioning anyway. It is also a good idea to farm Labs in order to get the increased Frost Blades damage enchantment

Adds 40 to 60 Physical Damage to Attacks +(20-25) to all Attributes +(100-125)% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier (100-120)% increased Armour (40-50)% increased Physical Damage taken

Helmet enchantment 40% increased Frost Blades damage

(Body Armour) Belly of the Beast - great defensive stats. It's also dex/str based so makes it easier to get the right colors on your sockets. Can be replaced with any high Life/Res chest

3% reduced Movement Speed (Hidden) (150-200)% increased Armour (30-40)% increased maximum Life +(10-15)% to all Elemental Resistances 50% increased Flask Life Recovery rate Extra gore

(Weapon Slot) Touch of Anguish - a must have items for this build. They are also extremely cheap BiS uniques for this build. Simply aim for the highest Crit and Physical Damage. Even nearly perfectly rolled ones shouldn't be too expensive

+46 Life gained for each Enemy hit by Attacks Adds (40-50) to (130-150) Physical Damage 30% increased Cold Damage (30-40)% increased Critical Strike Chance 20% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Killing a Frozen Enemy Skills Chain an additional time while at maximum Frenzy Charges 10% chance to Freeze Critical Strikes do not always Freeze

(Belt) Rare Belt - we recommend picking a high Life/Res. Leather Belt. Elemental damage with attacks is also a very important affix that you should seek for

Min. requirements: 58 maximum Life 27% Fire Resistance 27% Cold Resistance 27% Lightning Resistance 32% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Optional affixes: increased Physical Damage (Rustic Sash only)

(Boots) Rare Boots - getting the highest of the two and at least 20% increased movement speed is important. A dex-based pair is recommended to get the right socket colors (3G + 1R)

Min. requirements: 80 maximum Life 27% Fire Resistance 27% Cold Resistance 27% Lightning Resistance 20% increased Movement Speed

(Gloves) Rare Gloves -  once again, highest Life/Res. and possibly Attack Speed is preferred. You should search for Int/Dex based gloves to easily match the required socket colors

Min. requirements: 55 maximum Life 30% Fire Resistance 30% Cold Resistance increased Attack Speed

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - you should be easily able to add the %increased Cold Damage affix on the amulet since we are only "expecting" Lightning Resistance here (or the other element you have no taken up on your Gloves earlier)

Min. requirements: 70 maximum Life Added 8.5 Physical Damage to Attacks 30% Lightning Resistance Optional affixes: increased Cold Damage Attributes

(Rings) Rare Rings - with added flat Physical Damage bonus are the best options here if you can afford them. The price will be usually over one Exalted Orb per Ring

Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life Added # Physical Damage to Attacks 10% All Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: increased Elemental Damage increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills

(Jewel) Fight for Survival - have two of those equipped (preferably in the right part of the Skill Tree) with the perfectly rolled %Increased cold damage (they will be cheap anyway)

(10-15)% increased Cold Damage With at least 40 Dexterity in Radius, Melee Damage dealt by Frost Blades Penetrates 15% Cold Resistance With at least 40 Dexterity in Radius, Frost Blades has 25% increased Projectile Speed

(Jewels) Rare Jewels - have the maximum Life bonus on each Jewel equipped, as well as any combination of the recommended stats found below

Recommended affixes: increased maximum Life increased Generic/Elemental/Cold/Projectile/Physical Damage Optional affixes: increased Attack Speed increased Attack Speed with Claws

(Flask) Taste of Hate - grants both amazing DPS and defensive bonuses. If you can't afford it just grab another sapphire flask - you will need to have the highest cold res. cap in order to get the extra cold damage penetration from The Wise Oak flask

+50% to Cold Resistance +6% to maximum Cold Resistance 20% of Physical Damage taken as Cold Damage during Flask effect Gain (15-20)% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage during effect 30% chance to Avoid being Chilled during Flask effect

(Flask) Atziri's promise - a great unexpensive flask. It's one of the most popular flasks in Path of Exile - grants additional chaos damage and life leech

+35% to Chaos Resistance 2% of Chaos Damage Leeched as Life during Flask effect Gain (15-20)% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage during effect Gain (10-15)% of Elemental Damage as Extra Chaos Damage during effect

(Flask) The Wise Oak - will grant additional Elemental Resistances and Cold Damage Penetration (as long as your Cold Resistance is the highest)

+35% to all Elemental Resistances During Flask Effect, 10% reduced Damage taken of each Element for which your Uncapped Elemental Resistance is lowest During Flask Effect, Damage Penetrates (10-15)% Resistance of each Element for which your Uncapped Elemental Resistance is highest

Other suggested Flasks: Divine Divine Life Flask of Staunching (immunity to Bleeding) Experimenter's Quicksilver Flask of Heat (Freeze immunity)

We will appreciate all suggestions regarding this build. Also if you have a request for a future guide please leave it in the comments below. You can also join the discussion on our Facebook fan page.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.