Frostbite DoT Swarmblade Druid by Istros Build Guide

Very high single target damage.

Tanky against both Hit and DoT damage.

Single skill build with minimal skill rotation.

Great scaling potential with Exalted gear, especially for defenses.

Can complete 300+ corruption monoliths using yellow gear with ease.

Requires 3 Uniques with at least 1 LP to feel good.

Requires constant herding of Storm Crows to keep them alive.

Relies heavily on Idols for Physical, Necrotic and Poison resistance.

Low Movement Speed until Legendary Snowdrift with Movement Speed.

Uniques

Frostbite Shackles give us 1% Ward Retention per 1% Cold resistance which helps us to keep the ward we gain from Exsanguinous high so we stack % Cold resistance wherever possible. Chitin Sleet Storm 5/5

give us 30% Freeze Rate Multiplier globally per Attunement while in Swarmblade Form which is converted into Frostbite effectiveness by Snowdrift. With 80+ Attunement it is possible to reach 3500%+ Freeze Rate Multiplier which gives 700%+ Frostbite effectiveness.

Skill Rotation

Use your Summon Storm Crows, transform into Swarmblade Form and just use Armblade Slash and nothing else.

Companions

To keep your Storm Crows healthy I highly recommend getting T1 Sealed PrefixMinion Health on all of your gears. Otherwise they will die very quickly at 300+ corruption monoliths.

You can level with Werebear Form and Swipe since it deals good damage, fast and quite tanky until monoliths and swap to Swarmblade Form and Serpent Strike and go with a 2H weapon and scale melee physical damage until you can sort your gear. I also recommend swapping to Dual-Wield, Low-Life and DoT at around Level 75 since that is the point where you have most of the important affixes sorted out and the build can start functioning.

Why Dual-Wield?

It allows us to scale Melee Attack Speed much better, allows us to put both Shred Armour and Chill affixes along with Poison Chance on hit affix scaling our damage even further. -15% DR is worth it in this case.

Why Low-Life?

The primary reason to go with a Low-Life build is the Berserker 5/5 passive as otherwise we don't have enough survivability but feel free to experiment on your own.

Why Not Spriggan Form Like Lizard_IRL's Build?

With the change to Gaspar's Insight , Spriggan Form can only reach 2500%+ Freeze Rate Multiplier with much less increased DoT making it deal less then half of the damage this build does. It is more tanky but I don't think it is worth losing that much damage but feel free to experiment on your own.