Ice Strike
Invoker Build

Updated for Path of Exile 2 Early Access

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It's one of the most popular builds for an Invoker - a fairly basic ice Strike Quarterstaff build. This late-game version takes advantage of one of the Invoker's passives that causes your Critical Strikes to ignore enemies' Elemental Resistances. It requires very high Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier, but in turn, removes all the necessities tied to Penetration or Curses. The damage is also substantially higher than that of a non-crit build. The build is excellent at mapping. Ice Strike teleports you to the enemy, which increases your mobility. You're also using Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder; the former deals mostly Lightning Damage and the latter - Cold Damage. It may seem counterintuitive, but this maneuver causes a chain reaction, where Herald of Ice's explosion can proc Herald of Thunder's Lightning Bolts and vice versa. If there's a high mob density, in a Breach, for example, the build performs very well.

Single-target damage is achieved with a good weapon and a Tempest Bell. Tempest Bell is a peculiar ability that doubles your boss damage, as long as you can Hit it alongside the main target. Empower your Attacks with Charged Staff for added damage and additional shockwaves to Hit the Bell twice as many times a second as you would normally. You will deal mainly Cold Damage with some Lightning Damage sourced from Herald of Thunder, added Lightning Damage, and Charged Staff. This lets you Shock and Freeze bosses. In patch 0.5, when Martial Artist was introduced, most players switched to it due to the Bell Branch, which lets you carry the Bell permanently, plus it has Way of the Stonefist and Runic Meridians to improve all the build's aspects. Generally, Invoker doesn't need to invest in Penetration or Spirit and can reach a higher ES pool via Meditate, but Martial Artist is better if you have better gear and a higher character level. Everything else remains as it is here.

The durability stems from the mix of a very high Evasion and Energy Shield. The ES is so much better than Life that we opted for Chaos Inoculation; this way you won't need any Chaos Resistance. You can then improve your ES & Evasion defensive layers with Invoker's Meditation, Wind Dancer, or Ghost Dance. To recover ES, allocate Eternal Youth and use the Life Flask.

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1. Gameplay

Use Ice Strike to rush through maps. Herald Skills will do the legwork with clearing. When you encounter a tough enemy, charge your Staff and drop a Bell. Try to keep a short distance between you and the enemy, and hit the Bell alongside the opponent. Your passive skills are Wind Dancer, Combat Frenzy, and Grim Feast or Ghost Dance.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

You can begin with Ice Strike; it performs well even at low levels. Specializing in Critical Strikes requires high level and good gear, so leave it out for later. If you have Ghostwrithe, put it on and allocate ES nodes. It will let you benefit from the Meditate and Grim Feast skills early on. Unique Quarterstaves can be great; even Pillar of the Caged God is excellent if you have the gear with Attributes and go for them on a Passive Skill Tree. Other good Uniques are The Pandemonius and Polcirkeln. Also, try to fit the "Gain 1 Rage on Melee Hit" Ruby Jewel. Definitely grab these items if you're able to. Chaos Inoculation does not need to be allocated early; it's a late-game Keystone.

[DPS] Ice Strike setup
	Ice Strike - Your damaging ability; deals Cold Damage.
	Rapid Attacks - 25% more Attack Speed.
	Cold Atunement - Additional Cold Damage, but less Fire and Lightning Damage.
	Concentrated Effect - Concentrated damage.

[DPS] Tempest Bell setup
	Tempest Bell - Deploy it when fighting bosses to boost your damage.
	Rage - Grants some Rage on Hit.
	Heavy Swing - More Damage with the Bell.

[UTILITY] other gems
	Herald of Ice - Improves your clear speed and converts damage. You will deal mainly Cold Damage at first, don't bother with Lightning Damage.
	Elemental Weakness - Lowers Elemental Resistance.

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

Click on the image to open the Passive Tree preview in a new window Or import the build into PoB: Path of Building 2 code

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in this order:

1. Lead me through Grace...
2. I am the Blizzard...
3. Faith is a Choice
4. Sunder my Enemies...

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Ice Strike setup
	Ice Strike - It's the main damaging ability. A basic Attack that deals mostly Cold Area damage.
	Concentrated Effect - Less AoE, but much more damage. Your clear is still good thanks to the Herald skills and auto-targeting with teleport from Ice Strike.
	Rapid Attacks - 25% more Attack Speed.
	Ice Bite - After you Freeze an enemy, gain 35% of Damage as Cold Damage for 3 seconds. You should be able to Freeze bosses with it. If you're a Martial Artist, replace it with Elemental Armament, since damage as extra is granted via Gloves.
	Close Combat - Since Ice Strike teleports you right in front of the enemy, use Close Combat to deal more damage to them.
	Heft - 30% more Maximum Physical Damage, which is all Converted.

[DPS] Tempest Bell setup
	Tempest Bell - When up against bosses, place a Bell and Hit it to trigger shockwaves that are based on your Attack Damage. It doubles your damage if you hit the target and the Bell.
	Expanse - Grants much more Area of Effect, but adds a Cooldown to a Skill, which is not an issue since you cannot use it that often, and it has a limit of 1.
	Rage - Grants 3 Rage on Melee Hit. Rage grants 1% more Attack Damage.
	Ancestral Call - The Bell deals more damage if you place it no more often than once every three seconds.
	Close Combat
	Heavy Swing - Less Attack Speed but much more Melee Damage. The Bell Attacks only when you Hit it, so the downside doesn't matter.

[UTILITY] Herald of Thunder setup
	Herald of Thunder - When you kill a Shocked enemy, it stores a Lightning Bolt that deals Lightning Attack Damage to the next target you Hit, but the Skill cannot Shock on its own.
	Elemental Armament - More Elemental Damage.
	Lightning Mastery - Increases the Gem Level of Herald of Thunder.
	Ambush - 100% more Critical Hit Chance against Enemies that are on Full Life. You can replace it with Shock Siphon to trade this extra damage for ES Recovery.
	Longshot - Deal more damage to enemies far from you. Herald of Thunder has a good range.
	Magnified Area - More Area of Effect.

[UTILITY] Herald of Ice setup
	Herald of Ice - When you skill a Frozen enemy, it shatters, dealing AoE Cold Attack Damage.
	Magnified Area
	Cold Mastery - Increases the Gem Level of Herald of Ice.
	Elemental Focus - More Elemental Damage with no downside.
	Cold Attunement - More Cold Damage, less Fire and Lightning Damage.
	Elemental Armament

[UTILITY] Charged Staff setup
	Charged Staff - It empowers your weapon with added Lightning Damage, but also has its own damaging shockwave triggered on Hit with Ice Strike. It consumes Power Charges, which you generate via Combat Frenzy.
	Prolonged Duration - More Skill Effect Duration.
	Cold Exposure - Applies Cold Exposure, which reduces Cold Resistance.
	Lightning Exposure - Applies Lightning Exposure, which reduces Lightning Resistance.
	Potent Exposure - Exposures are more potent. It's important to note that with "Sunder my Enemies..." you will ignore all Elemental Resistances with Critical Hits, so the whole Exposure Support Gems can be replaced with something more damage-oriented if you approach 100% Crit Chance.
	Elemental Armament

[UTILITY] Wind Dancer setup
	Wind Dancer - More Evasion Rating until you're Hit with a Melee Attack. The skill has to regain stages after that. It's a huge buff to Evasion, the main defensive layer in this build.
	Blind - Wind Dancer Blinds nearby enemies when it breaks. It makes enemies less Accurate and Evasive.
	Maim - Wind Dancer also Maims enemies, which reduces their Movement Speed.

[UTILITY] Combat Frenzy setup
	Combat Frenzy - Grants a Power Charge when you Freeze, but you have to allocate the Resonance Keystone, or it will generate only Frenzy Charges, which are completely useless.
	Charge Profusion - It's a 50% chance to grant an additional Charge upon Freezing an enemy.
	Clarity - Increases Mana Regeneration Rate.

[UTILITY] [BOSSING] Ghost Dance setup
	Ghost Dance - It's excellent if you have high Evasion and use Energy Shield. When Hit, it instantly grants ES based on your Evasion, but you have to wait 3 or 4 seconds for it to recharge.
	Compressed Duration - Ghost Shrouds are gained sooner, meaning the ability re-arms faster.

[UTILITY] [MAPPING] Freezing Mark setup
	Freezing Mark - Marked enemy Freezes faster, and you're bestowed with extra Cold Damage when Freezeing.
	Charged Mark - Mark creates Shocking Ground, which is usually unnecessary unless your Lightning Damage is very low.
	Eternal Mark - Mark stays for another round
	Mark of Siphoning - You can Leech Mana and Life from Physical Damage dealt to Marked enemies.

6. Gear Setup

It's a non-HoWA Crit version of a build, but it can easily be transformed into a non-crit or HoWA version with little to no changes. We've decided to specialize in Critical Strikes just to highlight where you can find valuable Crit modifiers. It can really elevate your build, especially with the Invoker's "Sunder my Enemies...". When you play the HoWA variant, just put the gloves on and you're done with the changes. Nonetheless, the most important is a weapon: a Quarterstaff with high Physical DPS. It's probably the most expensive piece of equipment. On your other Items, go for Resistances, missing Attributes (mostly Dex or Int), and Evasion. Spirit is redundant thanks to the "Lead me through Grace..." Passive. No Unique Items are required as well. For bases, go for the Evasion & Energy Shield ones, but for Helmet get pure ES base and as much ES as you can (it gets increased via the Subterfuge Mask notable). It's a CI build, so you won't need any Maximum Life or Chaos Resistance. You're also using 6 or 7 Red Support Gems; be sure you have enough Strength for them, as you won't need it for anything else.

(Weapon) Rare Quarterstaff - Gothic Quarterstaff has the highest base Crit Chance, making it the best option for a Crit build. Slicing or Long Staves are good for non-crit builds. Seek high Physical DSP, increased Elemental Damage with Attacks, Attack Speed, and Critical Hit modifiers, which are very important if you want to reach a high Critical Hit Chance and Multiplier.

Min. requirements: increased Physical Damage increased Attack Speed Optional affixes: Critical Damage Bonus Critical Hit Chance increased Elemental Damage with Attacks

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - Get the ES Helmet with 400 or more Energy Shield on it. For Suffixes, go for Resistances, Intelligence, or Critical Hit Chance.

Min. requirements: 400 Maximum Energy Shield Optional affixes: Elemental Resistance Intelligence Critical Hit Chance

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - With Gloves, you can go crazy with offensive modifiers like added damage, Attack Speed, and Critical Damage Bonus; these are luxurious upgrades. First - prioritize Resistances and Attributes.

Min. requirements: Elemental Resistance Added Physical Damage Optional affixes: Added Cold or Lightning Damage Attributes Accuracy Rating increased Attack Speed increased Critical Damage Bonus Energy Shield and Evasion

(Boots) Rare Boots - Here try to get high Movement Speed, Evasion Rating, Energy Shield, Resistances, and Attributes.

Min. requirements: increased Movement Speed Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Attributes Energy Shield and Evasion

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - Go for Lunar Amulet for Maximum ES, Azure Amulet for Mana Regeneration, or some other base for Attributes. For Prefixes, get Maximum Energy Shield. For Suffixes, Critical Hit modifiers. It's also a good opportunity to obtain Attributes, Resistances, Accuracy, and Level of all Melee Skills. The third Strike of Ice Strike scales well with Gem Level.

Min. requirements: Maximum Energy Shield increased Maximum Energy Shield Optional affixes: Elemental Resistance increased Critical Hit Chance increased Critical Damage Bonus Accuracy Attributes Level of all Melee Skills

(Ring) Rare Ring - Rings can roll added Damage, but their primary role is providing you with Attributes and Resistances. One Suffix for Mana on Kill could help you a lot with Mana sustain when mapping.

Min. requirements: Added Physical Damage Elemental Resistance Attributes Optional affixes: Accuracy Evasion Rating Added Cold or Lightning Damage increased Mana Regeneration Rate Mana per Enemy Killed

(Belt) Rare Belt - Belt is a simple case. There are no useful Prefixes, maybe Maximum Mana or Flask modifiers. What you want are Resistances, Charm Slots, and maybe Strength - all Suffixes. Just go for Headhunter/Mageblood if you can.

Min. requirements: Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Maximum Energy Shield Strength

(Body Armour) Rare Body Armour - The Jacket should have high Maximum ES and Evasion (ur just pure Evasion); these are by far the most important modifiers to seek. For Suffixes, get the usual Resistance or Attribute. Maybe both.

Min. requirements: 350 Maximum Energy Shield 900 Evasion Rating Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Attributes

(Jewel) Rare Ruby Jewels - Ruby Jewels can roll Rage on Hit - get at least one such Jewel.

Optional affixes: Rain 1 Rage on Melee Hit increased Melee Damage increased Elemental Damage Maximum Rage

(Jewel) Rare Sapphire Jewels - Sapphire Jewels are a source of Maximum Energy Shield and Critical Hit mods.

Optional affixes: increased Maximum Energy Shield increased Critical Hit Chance increased Critical Damage Bonus increased Cold Damage increased Elemental Damage increased Freeze Buildup increased Freeze Buildup with Quarterstaves Recover Mana on Kill

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

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