I was reading about Ice Crash recently and how one could buff the damage by increasing the area and using some of the new war cry effects. So I decided to pull out my old Hollow Palm Raider that I left at level 68 and push her into maps. Right now, I’m loving it.
I had a bit of better gear on Standard, including a Garukhan’s Flight boots, which compliments a dexterity stacking build like Hollow Palm quite well. It took a bit of effort to re-arrange her gear as balancing defensive stats with a satisfactory amount of dexterity is challenging for Hollow Palm. Nonetheless, I managed to eek out enough stats to be ready for the Kitava penalty.
Changing from Frenzy to Ice Crash required me to find a better chest piece. Unfortunately, my old one did not have the exact colors. So I had to sacrifice some dexterity there. However, I had a 6-Link chest piece lying around that I essence crafted more life and some resistance. I figured it would make for a good starter chest piece until I managed to convert another chest piece potentially and corrupt it for all white sockets.
So for the basics, I’m going with Elemental Damage with Attacks, Cold Penetration, Fist of War, Increased Area and Ruthless as the main support gems. Fist of War and Increased Area give Ice Crash a very nice zone for damage while Ruthless provides the last stage from Ice Crash in providing a generous damage buff. Cold Penetration, I figured, is good for bossing while Elemental Damage with Attacks boost my basic cold damage.
Along with this, I use both Hatred and Herald of Ice to boost my cold damage. I run a Stone Golem just for the additional life regeneration (might be pointless) at the moment along with a Vaal Ancestral Warchief for bosses. Lastly, I have two war cry gems in Seismic Cry and Enduring Cry which are linked against a Second Wind and Flame Dash. The idea with the two war cries are using Seismic for a damage buff and knock back while Enduring Cry is a panic button.
Gear-wise, I have four pieces that I can probably upgrade, one of which might be really difficult, which is the chest piece. Basically, I need to use an elder evasion type of item, roll dexterity and %increased dexterity along with high life and other defenses, then 6L it and finally either color it with 4 reds, 1 blue and 1 green or corrupt it with all white sockets.
My ring is something interesting though because I have an old Ventor’s Gamble with very good rolls. I’ve been finding more uniques with this item so I kinda want to keep it. The helmet though is something that’s a bit weak. It has strong rolls but I need a trifecta for resistances along with a high life roll. That way, I can fiddle around with adjusting my other ring and hopefully get better stats.
Of the three Hollow Palm skills I’ve used, I found this one to be the most reliable, especially for the Raider. The damage has been very good and the clear is great. I think the biggest challenge is coordinating my shouts with hitting a well placed slam. Sometimes, I find that I dash right into a large pack of monsters and have trouble getting off a hit. At that point, my life begins to dip fast and I begin to worry.
Regardless, the Garukhan’s Flight boots are coming in very handy since they offer good life and a generous life regeneration. I feel that this character will have a pretty good chance of handling Uber Lab once I get enough levels with some better life to back her up.
Long term though, I feel that the character will need to transition into something tankier and re-spec from Hollow Palm into either something like a Facebreaker build or perhaps move towards swords. I’ve read how one could use The Savior and a Paradoxica (or some jeweled foil). Unfortunately, my Paradoxica rolled poorly and I do not own a Savior yet.
What I like about this build for a Raider is that it reminds me a bit of Frostblades except the damage is far better on the single target aspect. It makes the build feel more stable and reliable. But I like the incorporation of the Garukhan’s Flight because of the regeneration aspect. I feel that Frostblades was okay up to a point where bosses just sucked because the single target depended upon spamming until your fingers hurt.
One thing that I am thinking about is seeing about converting my other Raider into a Ice Crash build too. Instead of going Hollow Palm, I would just re-do her chest piece gems, fit in the war cries and replace her weapon. It would be nice to finish her off.