Low Life Cold Acid Flask Falconer Build Guide

• Fast echo clear and stability build
• High mobility with near permanent Haste and under 3s cooldown of your traversal skill Aerial Assault
• Double PrefixCold Penetration from Snowdrift and Knowledge of Immunity
• Built in ward retention off of SuffixCold Resistance stack which also increases our DPS via Knowledge of Immunity
• Dodge basically everything
• Over 100% glancing blows
• Freeze/chill/frailty/slow/blind are all applied with Acid Flask
• -32% damage taken while moving from Tailwind and Evasion, as Explosive Trap spam will cause stutter step if you hold down left click, we're moving a lot
• 0 SuffixCritical Strike Avoidance needed
• 0 SuffixEndurance needed
• Some Acid Flask nodes like Hydrochloric Acid, Contamination and Lasting Sickness currently don't work with cold as they do with poison - the possibility of these being bugged and fixed in the future could make the build stronger

Reliance on Explosive Trap spam to stay alive

Reliance on potions for mana if starved

Ward sustain isn't great

Hard to cap all resistances without ideal slams

Feels clunky without high PrefixThrowing Attack Speed

Slow bosser until fully optimised

Not hardcore viable

Not a cycle starter but a transition build requiring specific uniques

Gameplay is revolved around Explosive Trap stutter step spamming to fling as many Acid Flask out. Each cast of Explosive Trap can fling 5 Acid Flask and we can cast up to 3 traps per second with how fast we’re attacking. We have 4 damage components:

1. The DoT of Acid Flask
2. The cold damage of Explosive Trap
3. The cold damage of Umbral Blades
4. The DoT of Frostbite which is the bulk of our damage

Use direct Acid Flask to proc Poison Pools and Amatoxic Pools vs tougher enemies and restore mana from Sapping Strikes.

Use Aerial Assault as often as possible to generate ward (an insane 50% of our missing health), apply Frailty and restore mana from Refreshing Resolve. I personally use q for Explosive Trap instead of left or right click and put Aerial Assault on right click as i'm used to mobility skills there.

Use Falcon Strikes to execute Exiled Mages, rares and bosses when they get down to 16% health.

Role of Umbral Blades

We don't need to ever cast Umbral Blades, the falcon will summon 3 blades every Aerial Assault in random directions. They cost 2x3 = 6 mana on top of Aerial Assault 6 mana cost so 12 total but you get 9% of missing mana back from Refreshing Resolve so it's often free. Umbral Blades damage ramps up as you stack dusk shroud off of Explosive Trap spam which also scales the damage of ailments it applies ie. Frostbite. It gains 8% damage per dusk shroud from the Edge of Obscurity node. We won't be manually casting it nor using Smoke Bomb to double it's damage in this build as we summon them passively while traversing and want to focus on Explosive Trap spam. Umbral Blades only scales with cold damage, dexterity and throwing attack damage and there are no DoT nodes sadly. We won't be scaling it as we are solely scaling DoT damage for Frostbite. However we still have over 400% cold damage in the build with Throne of Ambition stacks and 50 dexterity.

The Edge of Obscurity is insane; when dusk shroud is stacked I currently get up to 1 mil Umbral Blades dps tooltip (which is decent being a direct damage skill when we are solely DoT scaling build). You will stack a lot of dusk shroud from both Explosive Trap spam & Shroud of Dusk and will be maintaining it to stay alive so it's free Frostbite scaling. Cold shard explosions from Explosive Blades will apply Frostbite. Poison sources won't convert to Frostbite for it as that only applies to Acid Flask but we've still got over 250% sheet Frostbite chance + 85% from Vial of Volatile Ice "cold hits".

The falcon can throw 3 Umbral Blades every Aerial Assault which is every 3.1s or less and they seek out enemies for 4.8s (but move if you recast Aerial Assault) and explode dealing a cold and fire shard explosion that deals increasing damage the longer they're out from Burst of Agony and seek enemies from Loathing. They can also freeze and chill enemies from Coldsnap Strike. I find using Umbral Blades is faster echo clear and higher boss dps than Smoke Bomb shadows throwing Explosive Trap but we're squishier. We will be using the explosive version. The other option is allowing the blades keep spinning on contact with enemies which would mean maxing 4/4 Steel Torrent and removing Explosive Blades and Burst of Agony. The bladestorms last 4.8s and hit 3 times per sec if you went the spinning route and don't scale with attack speed. Only 1 blade can hit an enemy, stunting boss damage. The issue with letting the blades spin is recasting Aerial Assault moves the previous 3 blades whereas the shard explosions do more damage the longer they're out from Burst of Agony. Better value vs bosses since all 3 can hit the boss. The explosive setup seems to be the higher dps setup from testing so far.

How to sustain mana

• T7 PrefixThrowing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost rings x2 will make the cost of Acid Flask 0, Explosive Trap 12 and Umbral Blades 2 per cast.
• PrefixExperimental Mana on Potion Use on belt.
• Sapping Strikes x direct Acid Flask cast (x2 value with Elecoe's Abandon in the life build),
• 6/6 Stamina of the Rover
• Refreshing Resolve
• Hunter's Spoils

Role of the falcon

The falcon in this build plays a supportive role in granting us a 15% movement speed and attack speed buff for 5s in Wake of Wings which will be active most of the time, a 16% health execute with Falcon Strikes Bird of Prey which can execute bosses, Poison Pools converted "cold pool generation" for the Amatoxic Pools 10% DoT multiplier, mana sustain from Hunter's Spoils and extra Frostbite stacks off of it's Acid Flask throws. It by default throws an Acid Flask every 6s and has a 75% chance to gain a charge (more than enough to prolong the 5s Wake of Wings buff) every time you direct cast Acid Flask It can also throw 3 Umbral Blades every Aerial Assault. The falcon's damage is negligible to yours. It's throws scale with your own damage not minion damage which don't double up for minions if you had both on a piece of gear.

2/2 Marking Strikes gives the falcon a 40% chance to proc the Wake of Wings buff off of it's "other hits" aka Acid Flask. Thus is it important to be direct casting Acid Flask to maintain the buff, if not the falcon will only gain 1 Acid Flask charge every 6s.

You can level with a Crystal Wand for the mana implicit and quad damage rolls. T7 PrefixThrowing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost do not come cheap and are hard to find so this will ease the mana pressure.

If you are CoF, you don't need Vial of Volatile Ice, you can just level as poison with as much SuffixChance to Poison on Hit you can find as this will eventually convert to Frostbite. You can use a combination of Explosive Trap slow casts and Acid Flask and it's poison pools and reap the full benefits of the poison nodes Hydrochloric Acid, Lasting Sickness and Contamination which currently don't work with cold.

If you are MG, buy a 0 LP Vial of Volatile Ice and go cold right away, they are extremely cheap!

The falcon will do significant damage while leveling as you are attacking a lot slower with Explosive Trap and for this reason the Falconry tree has falcon damage nodes such as Rending Talons however please note it's damage will fall off as you get better mana sustain and PrefixThrowing Attack Speed.

Bleeding Heart will carry you if you find or buy one early. Try get an 8.5-9% leech one. Aim to slam at least T7 PrefixElemental Damage Over Time on this first. Paired with Grand Wrath of Rahyeh you will breeze through the campaign without dying. I transitioned into the low life build around corruption 104x. There is no base build for low life as it requires significant investment in legendary potential slams to do enough damage and survive.

In corruption 1000+, you need to be careful vs elemental nasties like fire, gold spray, frost breath, poison DoT and the Exiled Mage’s rotating beam as these will usually be the things that kill you, otherwise you will be dodging most stuff in both echoes and boss fights. I managed to facetank a 1k orobyss (see here) using this setup although you never want to be doing that. The best way to deal with them when on multiple gaze is to kite them down with Explosive Trap and Acid Flask into the 16% execute with Falcon Strikes. The most lethal mechanic I found vs orobyss is flamethrower as it will one shot you in 1k+ corruption.

With the low life build, you want to be casting Aerial Assault to stack ward as often as possible inbetween Explosive Trap spam. Kiting bosses and orobyss will be a lot slower than direct casting Explosive Trap as you lose the 85% chance to apply Frostbite on cold hit; Acid Flask is a physical hit then a cold DoT but try to cast Explosive Trap ontop of them as much as possible for maximum dps.

You'll find early corruption gear will still be effective in corruption 1000+ due to our high cold penetration. For example the gear I used at 600, I still used in 1300+.

Starter filter

Endgame filter (for both the low life and life builds)

The loot filters provided show all exalted but recolours them based on number of wanted affixes. They hide all set items. Ignore the normal exalted (purple) as they won't have the wanted affixes for this build:

• White = 1+ affixes (starter only)
• Blue = 2+ affixes
• Yellow = 3+ affixes
• Pink = 4+ affixes

To install, click on one of the filter links above, click "Export", then "Save to File" or "Copy To Clipboard". Then when in-game, press the Esc key and click settings. About halfway down the gameplay tab, you'll find the loot filter section, along with a button that says 'Manage Loot Filters', add new loot filter then paste clipboard contents.

Does Vial of Volatile Ice Frostbite chance apply to Acid Flask?

The 80% Frostbite chance on “cold hit” from Vial of Volatile Ice doesn't apply to Acid Flask hits, they aren't a "cold hit", rather a physical hit then a cold DoT. Explosive Trap will get this bonus though being a cold hit. Direct hits with Explosive Trap will thus do a lot more damage than kiting with flask flings.

Can Create Shadow thrown Explosive Trap fling Acid Flask?

Yes. EHG forgot Explosive Trap in the Smoke Bomb Umbral Assault node tooltip - Create Shadow can clearly throw them and they fling to enemies. We aren't using shadows in this build as I found Umbral Blades builds echo stability faster and yields higher dps vs bosses.

Does Knowledge of Immunity work with cold?

This was confirmed to work by the devs. I tested too: with only Vial of Volatile Ice on, removing 3/3 Knowledge of Immunity doesn't affect the base damage of Frostbite directly but increases the base damage of Acid Flask (a cold skill) which in turn increases the damage of ailments: Frostbite is affected by damage modifiers from the skill tree and attribute scaling of the skill that applies it. (Tested with my Vial of Volatile Ice which has 47% cold res slammed with Knowledge of Immunity on/off).

Do Hydrochloric Acid, Lasting Sickness and Contamination work with cold?

No. Did some tests here.

TLDW:

• Cold pools can apply Frostbite stacks
• Contamination doesn't convert to Shred Cold Resistance
• Lasting Sickness doesn't convert to Frostbite duration
• Hydrochloric Acid doesn't give you increased Frostbite stacks when standing in cold pools. You would expect a lot more stacks being +100% global poison chance in pool but they're almost identical (slight increase due to moving closer)
• Same issue with Explosive Trap flung Acid Flask: ~33 frostbite stacks both out and inside the cold pool. Should be a noticeable difference if +100% global poison chance.

Do I need x2 T7 PrefixThrowing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost rings to play this build?

It is highly recommended you only switch to the low life build once you get x2 T7 PrefixThrowing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost on exalted rings and later slam these onto 3+ LP Heirloom of the Last Nomad for a 75% chance at landing it but the life build can be played with T5+ rings with a 55-60 mana implicit Crystal Wand.

Why Aerial Assault over Shift?

A comparison:

• Shift means you'll have way less ward but you're probably still tankier from the Shurikens Bladed Armor buff which will easily get you over 2k armor with no investment on gear. Aerial Assault stacks ward via Gustborne Guard which scales off of your max hp (50% of your missing hp is converted to ward). For example, at the time of this write-up have 6.7k stable ward and can get over 10k fully stacked spamming Aerial Assault. The Shift + Shurikens is definitely an option if you’re struggling with mana, dropping Smoke Bomb for Shurikens. 1049 corruption gameplay here.
• Aerial Assault travels a lot further and has a shorter cooldown. Skyward Swoop recovers some cooldown if you hit an enemy, otherwise both have a cooldown of 3.1s.
• Shift has way better mana sustain. We're always below half health so you get 48 back from Swift Recovery - 13 used = 35 every 4s which is almost 3 Explosive Trap casts (16) = 15 Acid Flask worth.
• Shift can automatically cast potions via Emergency Flask passively granting you mana and attack/movement speeds from Exsanguinous.
• Without T7 PrefixThrowing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost slammed on Exsanguinous, you lose Frailty from Debilitate which the build wouldn’t have, which is 6x3 stacks = 18% damage reduction for 4s. With the use of Aerial Assault you get 2 Frailty stacks from Predator's Cascade.

Does Aerial Assault Refreshing Resolve work? I feel like I’m getting no mana back?

Yes. It restores 9% of your missing mana. If your pool is 146 (like me) and you deplete it, Aerial Assault would give you 13 back but costs 6 itself = 7 back. Break even point for me is 67 missing mana (when the bar shows 79) above which the spell consumes more mana than it gives back. Not as good as Shift Swift Recovery for mana sustain but 100% worth taking.

How much Frostbite sheet damage do I need?

3k base Frostbite sheet damage is the goal to easily climb corruption, 4k if you can get it feels a lot smoother and i'm melting mobs in 1.9k corruption with that currently.

Why don't you use PrefixThrowing Attack Speed on both rings?

The build originally had PrefixThrowing Attack Speed on both rings and you're probably wondering why i'm not running that. We've got PrefixExperimental Frenzy Effect on boots and if you can manage to get a T7 roll, it will give you 20%*1.6=32% attack speed for up to 4s after every Aerial Assault. Since the cooldown of Aerial Assault is 3.1s you'll be fine with a T6+ roll. You get another 30% attack speed on Exsanguinous on potion use, 15% from the falcon buff Wake of Wings and 12% from Swift Assassin. Too much attack speed is useless when you can't fully sustain it so I went PrefixElemental Damage Over Time on both rings for higher Frostbite base damage scaling as these are huge modifiers.

Can I run Aerial Assault and Umbral Blades in the life build?

You can by dropping 1/1 Gustborne Guard for 3/3 Covering Fire. Won't be able to stack ward. Shurikens armor buff is nice with leech in the life build though.

How can I fix lag playing this build?

Try the following:

• Set Shadow Quality to Very Low
• Disable Detailed Shadows
• Set Ambient Occlusion to Very Low
• Set Terrain Quality to Medium
• Set Volumetric Lightning to Very Low

This will stabilise FPS while still letting the game retain its intended graphical potential.