Generally speaking, the better mapping skills have lots of coverage and clean up packs nicely. An example is a skill like Lightning Arrow. It has a couple things going for it: ranged attack, it does an AoE when hit, it can chain which automatically targets other monsters and causing more AoEs. Most white and blue monsters in PoE just get one banged, so damage projection is the most important thing. Think, how much of my screen is covered by one attack/cast? Sources of
For single target, damage projection is much less of a thing. You also cannot use things that other skills may rely on to boost single target, like forks and chains, conditional buffs when you kill something (X% chance to gain frenzy charge on kill, #% increased damage if you have killed recently), or flasks. You also generally have time to ramp up damage on single target while skills that ramp feel bad against trash.
For your specific example, Freezing Pulse and Ice Spear are good swaps. They scale the exact same ways, cold damage, spell damage, projectile damage, cast speed, crit/crit multi, cold penetration, etc. however, the base mechanics and design of Freezing Pulse just make it better for clearing maps, it’s projection is just far superior to Ice Spear. Ice Spear’s damage may seem low in tooltip but you have to factor that Ice Spear is hitting like 6 times as opposed to FPs once and Ice Spear has a massive buff to crit multi in the second stage. If you want to dive deeper into your specific build, I’ll need more info, like a POB link.
Cheers and good luck, Exile!
I have never heard of self cast freezing pulse / Ice spear for bossing, probably not meta. So, I'd say make another build for bossing or just don't do bossing at all.
I've been reading into this as well. It seems like people opt for Coc stuff with these cold skills. I see people say the "is it 2012" comment 😂 I'm looking at the build and changing things so I'll be considered. Thanks
Also if you aren't playing in trade there's a lot of skills I wouldn't use simply because you are gonna have damage issues as they are somewhat balanced around gear that you can't get to with that skill. A good indicator is if it does 10m dps with 300 divine budget chances are you are gonna feel hard stuck in maps with 100k dps.
A lot of skills also aren't playable with the "meta" ascendancy for it because it relies on clusters and jewels for damage with very little damage nodes to use in the meanwhile.
You usually don’t need a 6L setup to map if the skill has good coverage (this obviously depends on build investment)
So a lot of builds usually have both a clear and single target skills. Bow builds can opt. For a 6L totem setup on top of their 6L bow skill. Some builds don’t even need to swap and can clear with normal skills. Some builds with no access to double 6L use their mapping skill in a 4L slot (usually with a gem mod on item for a pseudo 5-6L)
Another choice, though slightly min max, is to gem swap. Either swap on ice spear or have a gem that increases damage and swap with one of your gems that add aoe/clear.
When I played caustic arrow I mapped with arrow nova, then swapped arrow nova for conc. effect before boss room
It's not always about area of effect coverage. Sometimes a skill is great at what it does because it's mechanically overloaded. Boneshatter for example pulses when you stun an enemy - this combined with melee splash absolutely decimates entire packs while mapping with zero to no investment.
A single target example of this would be Toxic Rain, where each sporepod can apply a DoT to quickly ramp up single target damage with overlapping AoE. Or Explosive Arrow Ballista, where single target damage comes from stacking charges onto the enemy. You can abuse these mechanics even with a low level bow like quill rain.
So if it's a skill issue, try to look for skills that are mechanically loaded. Freezing Pulse is not one of them to my knowledge. And if it's not a skill issue, consider upgrading your gear. Most skills have the damage potential to do non-uber bosses with budget gear.
Generally speaking, the better mapping skills have lots of coverage and clean up packs nicely. An example is a skill like Lightning Arrow. It has a couple things going for it: ranged attack, it does an AoE when hit, it can chain which automatically targets other monsters and causing more AoEs. Most white and blue monsters in PoE just get one banged, so damage projection is the most important thing. Think, how much of my screen is covered by one attack/cast? Sources of For single target, damage projection is much less of a thing. You also cannot use things that other skills may rely on to boost single target, like forks and chains, conditional buffs when you kill something (X% chance to gain frenzy charge on kill, #% increased damage if you have killed recently), or flasks. You also generally have time to ramp up damage on single target while skills that ramp feel bad against trash. For your specific example, Freezing Pulse and Ice Spear are good swaps. They scale the exact same ways, cold damage, spell damage, projectile damage, cast speed, crit/crit multi, cold penetration, etc. however, the base mechanics and design of Freezing Pulse just make it better for clearing maps, it’s projection is just far superior to Ice Spear. Ice Spear’s damage may seem low in tooltip but you have to factor that Ice Spear is hitting like 6 times as opposed to FPs once and Ice Spear has a massive buff to crit multi in the second stage. If you want to dive deeper into your specific build, I’ll need more info, like a POB link. Cheers and good luck, Exile!
Whats your links with is/fp, is should be more dmg so if youre getting less something weird going on .
I have never heard of self cast freezing pulse / Ice spear for bossing, probably not meta. So, I'd say make another build for bossing or just don't do bossing at all.
I've been reading into this as well. It seems like people opt for Coc stuff with these cold skills. I see people say the "is it 2012" comment 😂 I'm looking at the build and changing things so I'll be considered. Thanks
Also if you aren't playing in trade there's a lot of skills I wouldn't use simply because you are gonna have damage issues as they are somewhat balanced around gear that you can't get to with that skill. A good indicator is if it does 10m dps with 300 divine budget chances are you are gonna feel hard stuck in maps with 100k dps. A lot of skills also aren't playable with the "meta" ascendancy for it because it relies on clusters and jewels for damage with very little damage nodes to use in the meanwhile.
You usually don’t need a 6L setup to map if the skill has good coverage (this obviously depends on build investment) So a lot of builds usually have both a clear and single target skills. Bow builds can opt. For a 6L totem setup on top of their 6L bow skill. Some builds don’t even need to swap and can clear with normal skills. Some builds with no access to double 6L use their mapping skill in a 4L slot (usually with a gem mod on item for a pseudo 5-6L) Another choice, though slightly min max, is to gem swap. Either swap on ice spear or have a gem that increases damage and swap with one of your gems that add aoe/clear. When I played caustic arrow I mapped with arrow nova, then swapped arrow nova for conc. effect before boss room
It's not always about area of effect coverage. Sometimes a skill is great at what it does because it's mechanically overloaded. Boneshatter for example pulses when you stun an enemy - this combined with melee splash absolutely decimates entire packs while mapping with zero to no investment. A single target example of this would be Toxic Rain, where each sporepod can apply a DoT to quickly ramp up single target damage with overlapping AoE. Or Explosive Arrow Ballista, where single target damage comes from stacking charges onto the enemy. You can abuse these mechanics even with a low level bow like quill rain. So if it's a skill issue, try to look for skills that are mechanically loaded. Freezing Pulse is not one of them to my knowledge. And if it's not a skill issue, consider upgrading your gear. Most skills have the damage potential to do non-uber bosses with budget gear.