Freezing Summoner Sharpshooter Cold Heart Build (Torchlight 3 Early Access)

Freezing Summoner

This build is a complete lvl 60 setup and is UP-TO-DATE with the new relic subclass rework. The subclass used is Cold Heart. The build stacks extra damage sources that come from three skills: Loyal Shasta (taunts and then gives us passive +50% dmg vs taunted enemies), Sacrifice to Goose (applies vulnerability making enemies take 25% more dmg or 30% with the Tier 1 bonus), and Reload‘s Tier 2 bonus that gives our Precision skills 30% more dmg all of the time. Together with Ghost Visage (for mobility + an extra 50% crit chance buff that supposedly goes over the 40% cap) & our main DPS skill – Scattershot & the summons’s freeze (from Snowstorm). the build can dish out nice amount of damage to enemies that are clustered or spread out for multi-shots (Scattershot‘s mechanic). The icing of the build (no pun intended) is our Relic Subclass – Cold Heart. With Snowstorm Tier 3 we’re able to always critically hit frozen enemies while doing extra dmg to nearby enemies, as well as providing chance to freeze to us and our allies. If we combine Ice Shield that blocks the next 3 sources of damage with a high Block Chance & a high Evasion, the survivability seems to become super nice. We also get +25% Ice Damage from Jagged Ice. Jagged Ice no longer gives +25% Ice Damage, thus I no longer suggest getting it. The one must have item is the Wingspan rifle (ideally in the legendarium) + maybe consider Ryeful of Leedershap as a must have for the legendarium as well.

September 21st EDIT: I’ve updated the skill points allocation screenshots. The old setups have been REMOVED & REPLACED with ones that don’t include the Jagged Ice passive after the +25% ice dmg was removed from it. Both the old and new screenshots had skill point allocations for 70 total points.

Build Video footage:

The skills I use:

  • Scattershot – a nice source of damage that can be pretty strong when charged if using the Wingspan bow (equipped or in the Legendarium)
  • Loyal Shasta – used to taunt enemies and keep them grouped up for our dmg spam also makes taunted enemies take 50% more dmg). Can do some more dmg + heal us when the Shasta’s Promise shield is equipped/slotted in the Legendarium.
  • Sacrifice to Goose – we use it to apply vulnerability, making enemies take 25% more dmg or 30% with the Tier 1 bonus
  • Goblin Legion – Some  meatshields + okay dmg + nice ranged dps when boosted by the Ryeful of Leedarshap rifle.
  • Reload – resets the cooldowns of all Adventure Skills and also fully restores our ammo
  • Ghost Visage – our escape mechanic and a movement skill. We also get 50% crit chance for the next 3 uses of Scattershot after using it
  • Ice Shield – it’s amazing and blocks the next 3 sources of damage + does dmg by shooting icicles around us. It’s amazing combined with a high Block Chance & a high Evasion. This one’s on a cooldown and does not cost Energy.
  • Snowstorm – It’s a great bit of Extra DPS to nearby enemies as well as a +25% dmg buff + gives us chance to freeze + Tier 3 allows us to always critically hit frozen enemies.
  • Cold Front – Our BIG relic skill that we can activate after spending a total of 200 energy with other skills like Snowstorm. It’s good to save and use this on champions & bosses.

The gear I recommend using is:

MY IDEAL EQUIPPED GEAR:

  • A good rolled + socketed 1 handed Blue or Legendary weapon + a Boneblocker Shield or a Focus with nice rolls and a socket
  • OR If you want 2 handed: get a good rolled Blue 2 handed weapon + with Flat DMG rolls, a socket and some other good affixes. If going for the Bow Basic Attacks version build make sure to use a Bow.
  • Must wear 3 Musketeer pieces! I suggest wearing:  Gauntlets + Hat+ Shoulders or Boots
    • Musketeer Cavalier Hat – gives +1 Precision Skills (+2 with the 3 piece set bonus) [I’ve tested it and it won’t give you extra levels if the skill is already lvl 10 so go for lvl 9 if you have +1 or 8 if you have +2 to those skills]
    • Musketeer Gauntlets – summons one (or two with the 3 piece set bonus) archer spirits to fight alongside you (they use Tight Grouping)
    • Musketeer Shouldersuse a potion: restore a charge of Ghost Visage (2 charges restored with the set bonus)
    • If not slotting it: Musketeer Robe – gives +1 Adventurer Skills (+2 with the 3 piece set bonus) [I’ve tested it and it won’t give you extra levels if the skill is already lvl 10 so go for lvl 9 if you have +1 or 8 if you have +2 to those skills]
  • The rest will preferably be good rolled + socketed Blue (rare) items:

If you ‘slot in’ the Musketeer Robe, you can get a good stat boost from a well-rolled + socketed Blue Chest.
You’ll be looking for Flat dmg, % elemental dmg and/or Crit dmg, +%Evasion +%Block Chance & +% Scattershot dmg or +% Precision Skills dmg.

    • Blue Legs and Chest rolled for Flat or % Elemental dmg or Crit chance/Crit dmg with a socket. Crit chance seems to roll on Pants but not Chest Armor.
    • Blue Boots rolled for % Ice dmg or Crit dmg with socket.

In the case of the Helmet, If you want to get 1 more skill point to work with, try getting one that gives + 1 Skill Level to any skill that you have spent more than 1 point into.

Blue Gear only gets 1 socket now.

Suggested Legendarium Powers (to fill in the gaps from items you’re wearing):

MY IDEAL LEGENDARIUM COMBO:

  • Musketeer Robegives +1 Adventurer Skills (+2 with the 3 piece set bonus) [I’ve tested it and it won’t give you extra levels if the skill is already lvl 10 so go for lvl 9 if you have +1 or 8 if you have +2 to those skills]
  • Wingspan rifle – doubles the cooldown and the damage of Scattershot. NOTE: It used to be broken & give around 70-75% more total dmg increase instead of pure double (100%). It also used to quintuple the coooldown making a 1 second be 5 seconds and 0.9 sec. be 4.5 seconds if you use the -10% cooldown passive. IT IS NOW FIXED (apparently and I’m still farming for it)
  • Ryeful of Leedarshap (rifle) – boosts Goblin Legion to also summon 3 Ghostly Gunners. Those seem to benefit like other minions from the Snowstorm +25% dmg and the 5% chance to freeze.

For the 3rd slot there are options you might want to consider:

  • Option 1: Bonerazor (1handed sword) – can empower Boneblocker while slotted
  • Option 2Skittering Shoulders if you really need the +50% dmg reduction AoE field (lasts 15 sec.)
  • Option 3: another Musketeer Item (Hat, Boots, Shoulders)
  • Option 4: Lil’ Drake (boosts Sacrifice to Goose) or Two-Ton Pull (bow) – It lets us shoot Heart Seeker while using Precision skills
  • Option 5: IF nothing better’s available, maybe Shasta’s Promise – boosts Loyal Shasta to do 100% more dmg and heal us for 10% of our hp when she taunts OR any other item that you like

For the basic Attacks Version you might wanna consider using things like Herman’s Masterwork (Bow) equipped or in the Legendarium as well as things such as Stormblade (in the Legendarium for the procs).

The recommended stats to look for in your items are (the list is not in order of priority and is just listing good bonuses + there’s new stats and I might have missed some which will get added later):

  • + Flat Damage
  • +% elemental dmg – starts getting very good later on when you have a nice flat to boost with this
  • +% Damage to Precision skills
  • +% Damage to Scattershot (or Explosive Arrow if going for that setup)
  • +% Damage to Basic Attack (or the bow one) & +% Basic Attack Speed (or Explosive Arrow if going for that setup)
  • +% Damage to Snowstorm, Cold Front, Ice Golem (if you want to go for relic skill dmg, it might be best to focus on just one)
  • + Health
  • + Defense (the non elemental is good for any act but lesser numbers than elemental)
  • +% Critical Hit Chance (the cap is 40%)
  • +% Critical Damage (the cap is 300%)
  • +% Gear Luck (eventually try to get like 50-75% total for good drop quantity – the cap is 100%)
  • +% Energy Recharge Rate
  • -% Relic Energy cost
  • +% Relic Active Skill Damage
  • +% Chance to Block (synergizes very well with %Evasion and Ice Shield)
  • +% Chance to Evade damage (synergizes very well with %Chance to Block and Ice Shield)
  • +% Ammo Regeneration
  • +% Chance to Chill – a decent CC proc that works well with this build
  • +% Chance to Freeze amazing this build!!!
  • +% Chance to Poison is a decent DoT and stacks with other DoTs
  • +% Chance to Bleed and/or Burn to stack the poison with the other DoTs.
  • + % Chance to Stun/Slow/Blind – not a bad choice but not high priority

The Skills and Passives I recommend are:

IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that my setup + all other alternative examples are
WITH the +2 Precision & +2 Adventure skill levels from the Musketeer Set Hat + Robe!
On top of that I did NOT have extra +1 Skill Point from my Hat.

September 21st EDIT: I’ve updated the skill points allocation screenshots. The old setups have been REMOVED & REPLACED with ones that don’t include the Jagged Ice passive after the +25% ice dmg was removed from it. Both the old and new screenshots had skill point allocations for 70 total points.

REGULAR VERSION (used in the video):

A ‘NO NOVAS’ & BOW BASIC ATTACK SYNERGY VERSION (Scattershot & Reload used Only as Passives):

WITH +10% RELIC RECHARGE +10% RELIC SKILLS DMG:

WITH LVL 8 RELOAD +10% RELIC RECHARGE:

WITH RIZZI’S:

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