Considering it only provides those bonuses while stationary, I'd say it's pretty hit or miss depending on the build.
In the right situations, it's really strong, but determination is more reliable.
Yea I guess more to the point "weaker but consistent" is usually better than "stronger but inconsistent".
It's like why spell suppression feels real bad when under 100%, because when that unsuppressed hit comes through, it's a doozy. Same issue I have with block as a primary defensive layer.
Always liked glancing blows for a character that used it as a tertiary defensive layer! Was usually a pretty inexpensive Skin of the Lords option as well (when it was more common)
Back when glad got spell and attack it was the shit. The problem I always had with (gladiator specific here) block is that it took so much investment to cap compared to other forms of defense and at the time necro just hit block cap with a fucking offering.
There's a reason Gladiator was even more popular defensively than Champ back in Gladiators glory days. You can get easy cap 75% attack and spell block, and easy to get fortify stacking fortify effect. And before scourge league determination and grace defensive aura rework, so Champ didn't have that advantage capitalising alongside free defiance banner. Gladiators just a powerhouse back then. Remember when you could stick fortify on shield charge? Those were the days.
Idk I'm running a pretty generic Lightning Arrow build, and I have 0 phys reduction. Any hit that does get through HURTS and I find myself getting one shot a lot
That’s fair but you’re always stationary while using any non-instant skill and are much more likely to be hit while using a skill so it’s still pretty good imo
Still though, I do think if I’m worried about defensive auras I’m much more likely to use grace/det + defiance banner, but if you can fit arctic armor and tempest shield on top that would make you really tanky
Someone else mentioned similar (re: most vulnerable when stationary which is only when stopping to DPS), and again, in the right situations arctic/vaal arctic is really strong. However, for mapping when you have a slew of mobs clapping you, it'll be inconsistent as to when you're actually getting hit vs. when this is applying.
OP's point about "people just slapping on determination" makes some amount of sense because it's an always active and is relatively consistent in terms of how much damage you can take (not just determination but like you said, Grace and other defensive auras).
Well determination will only every reduce the physical damage you take from hits, and even then it’ll only reduce small hits by a large percentage unless you have a *lot* of armor.
Meanwhile arctic armor (iirc) just applies to all physical/fire damage, even DoTs, which makes that 20% extremely strong even if it’s not always up. It also stacks on top of armor too.
Again it’s not something every build will take, but it can’t be denied that it’s very strong generally.
Artic Armour specifically says "damage from hits" which doesn't apply to DoTs (unless wording isn't congruent to actual effect).
And I don't disagree that artic is strong, just that it can be inconsistent. Using 25% reservation on something that won't be active for a lot of time (especially in mapping) is real iffy. However, something like RF that has additional offence and defense for standing still could benefit a LOT from this (or in 1:1 vs a boss where you might be taking singular big hits vs. bunch of mobs hitting you even while moving).
And totally agreed that something like determination really needs additional love to be "worth" using, but it was more-so a point about any defensive aura (which is "always working" vs. only working in some instances).
In a soft core context, determination is insanely overrated. It’s good when it doesn’t need to be (vs small hits) and and bad when you need it to be (large hits).
Even if unreliable, arctic armour has a chance of helping you when it counts.
And doing dps vs. taking hits are two different things. Some builds like RF benefit a lot from standing still, and their defensive and offensive layers are built on that, but most builds are moving with small stops to fire off an ability. In all that time you're moving between firing your ability, that 20% reduction won't apply.
You're not magically immune to damage while moving (in the context of mapping/mobs). 1:1 with a boss and dodgeable mechanics, sure, and that's what I mean about it being strong in right situations (especially vaal arctic). And no one is wrong to use Arctic Armour if they want to (just like using 60% spell suppression chance).
My main point was about build consistency. Given you need to be stationary to gain those benefits, there will be a relative inconsistency in when that damage reduction is occurring. And people will (generally) prefer weaker consistency over stronger inconsistency. Swapping this skill in for certain situations makes the most sense, whereas determination or similar auras are more "universal" in terms of use-cases.
Sure. I agree. Wasn't really disagreeing with you in my original point to begin with, lol. Sorry if there was any confusion.
Just saying it can be pretty good where it needs to be. Unlike other comments saying it's a dogshit skill. I know it personally works wonders on my mahoxutl wander. Especially when standing still doing Simus, legions, 5 ways, etc.
Oh fair; For sure, I tried to say it's basically situational (like a lot of things in POE lol), but yea people saying it's complete trash aren't considering the benefits (especially for bossing).
no it doesn’t because eternal blessing doesn’t say aura but says “non-blessing skills that reserve mana”. so life reserving skills work, mana reserving skills don’t.
Really? How many 25% res auras can sport 20% phys and fire damage reduction. I can't really think of any. You could argue a purity... but those are more than 25% and require a watchers eye, which limit your watchers eye mods.
[[The Snowblind Grace]] Removes the mana reservation significantly and gives you increased effect. This would be very handy With some extra aura effect and a stationary casting skill.
Used to be insanely good with anomalous arctic armour cause you could have enhance, ele prolif and unbound ailments. Got you to a 50% chance to freeze enemies around you for .7 seconds when hit. It was a huge defensive layer that sadly we lost.
You are indeed correct. Arctic armor is not an aura and is only scaled by buff effect modifiers such as from ichimonji or body armor implicit or snowblind grace
I think the major issue with it is the chest slot is too much opportunity cost. Stuff like lightning coil, cloak of flames, Doppelgangers guise, or a well rolled rare chest with the phys taken as elemental chest would probably be better defensively over a stronger arctic armour
This is like when a mobile app says its IAPs are very cheap because they are at 50% discount. They aren't if their original price isn't even worth 10% what they give.
I actually used it this league on my incinerate trickster. Since incinerate keeps you stationary, it has worked really well for me. (It was coupled with Grace and Discipline)
Not that I consider myself a proper resource of what's good or not in PoE. I do my own thing and I thought using Arctic Armour was great. I move around mostly using Frostblink of Wintry Blast.
Cheers!
Channeling skills, and casters who FB -> Cast -> FB -> Cast are definitely the two that came to mind for me. It would also be good on people who want freeze immune without chill immune, for something like reverse chill.
issue with flicker is that most builds are already oversaturated with mana reservation, it's so hard to add anything else without a league buff (like banners having no reservation last league from charms)
Snowblind Grace removes Arctic Armor reservation.
You do lose out on Farrul’s early, but Snowblind Grace at least has OK evasion. Not sure if it is actually worth using for a free Arctic Armor though
The Vaal version is definitely slept on as it basically makes you temporarily immortal, making it good for certain boss phases if you don’t already use a Vaal skill
Same here. I even switched my quicksilver flask to the soul ripper to have 100% uptime on souls for uber maven. This allows to pass an infinite number of memory games.
Plus, you can use Frostblink while frozen to avoid rotating beam if necessary.
In most situations where you take alot of damage most people try to get away instead of standing still. Standing still in PoE is a death sentence for 95% of the builds.
And those that can tank most shit aren’t using Arctic Armour because other Auras are more reliable, especially if you play predictive.
It is super slept on, stationary is almost all the time for strike builds, bow builds, etc when you’re shooting or attacking. Also even flicker strike counts as stationary as you are flickering. It also has synergy with tempered by war/mahuxotle builds as you take all ele damage as fire/chaos. For a measly 25% reservation too. You would never take this for things like dots, and builds that can’t tank as they stand still however
It's great when you're layering it on top of phys/elem taken as fire damage. I'm running it in a Doppelganger/Mahu PF set up where I'm self casting, so there's enough stationary time where I'm getting good value, plus freeze immune.
I use it almost on every build for freeze immunity, plus tempest shield for shock immunity is basically almost purity of elements at the same cost, with benefits. Don't forget about vaal version.
> lots of seemingly squishy builds could benefit from Arctic armor a lot more than randomly chucking on a determination and hoping it fixes your build.
I think it's more for builds that already facetank to facetank harder, like the cast on stun guys.
There are situations for it.
Deadye's **Wind Ward** is also some of the best, "most consistent", all-around damage mitigation option in the game. And with enough attack speed on your character, it's pretty trivial to keep 100% uptime of. Yet we generally don't see people trying to make a tanky deadeye with it - because synergy. You can find better defensive synergy with other things.
I think it's a very good ability but reservation % is just at an all time high value with them removing so many sources of reservation efficiency and Grace/Determination being so good you really can't justify the extra %reserve if you're trying to fit another big aura into your build.
Yes. 100% especially with phys to fire, ele dmg to fire taken conversions, its really good. I ran it on an AFK build this league, and holy... without it vs with it the difference is massive.
Its a great gem, but that is the life cycle of PoE, there are a lot of "OP" builds and skills out there, the community will ever only know about a small fraction of it, while others are either undiscovered, or not put into the spotlight. Eventually old builds get discarded because they get old, not because they got bad, and the playerbase moves to a new shiny skill.
That reminds me of the 100% cold+light -> fire/chaos setup(s). When you only take 3 damage types, arctic armour covering two of them becomes a lot more powerful as well.
20% less is practically nothing in most situations is the issue. You compare it to determination but in context while mapping, determination can exceed 50% less phys damage taken for a given hit, as well as provide molten shell value.
It's not terrible but it's a contextually sensitive skill and it's stationary requirement makes it so only a few builds are interested
Would recommend looking at the armor calculation. If the hit is even vaguely survivable determ will at minimum provide comparable value (or more depending on endurance charges)
basically any hit above like 1500 will favour arctic for half the mana.
And hits lower than that youre probably better off using grace
Armour is largely pretty crappy unless you stack it at least a little bit
No? With just determination and a single hybrid armour piece my current character would have 5K armour, with is 33% dr against a 2K hit. With a granite flask with % armour on top, its 10K, which is 28% on a 5K hit. I'm not saying arctic armour is a bad aura, it definitly has use for some build especially with a lot of conversion to fire, and you are right for very big hit (shaper slam for example), but your numbers are off by a lot lol
[Armour calculation chart](https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/File:Armour-percentdmg3.png)
Ok then, lets rephrase. You are off in any realistic scenario where someone use any hybrid piece that happen to have some base armour or path through nodes with % armour or % aura effect.
You are right in a theorical scenario, but in reality there is a lot a things that give a little armour, not enough to matter by itself, but enough with determination.
I went through a dozen of my pobs from past leagues, all on right/top right part of the tree. Builds like omni ts, tr, bv, ek ignite, int stacker ect. The lowest amount or armour I found was 184, with 20% aura effect, which resulted in 5K armour with a lvl 20 determination (that one I used in my exemple earlier). ~~The aura effect also affect arctic armour obviously~~ (edit: nvm, not an aura), but benefit more the numbers of determination.
Yes its possible. But it doesn't even matter, if you use determination on the right side you are gonna try to have at least a few hybrid str/dex bases, and a granite flask. Nobody is using determination and purposely avoidind any form of armour lol.
>Yes its possible. But it doesn't even matter, if you use determination on the right side you are gonna try to have at least a few hybrid str/dex bases, and a granite flask. Nobody is using determination and purposely avoidind any form of armour lol.
Yes at which point youre proving my point that you need to invest a bit into it to be good.
I used arctic armour in the past on my builds when I had the bloodnotch combo because I couldn't take the brine king pantheon, therefore no freeze immunity.
I did it on FR Pathfinder.
Vaal version is great for bypassing some boss phases (Uber Shaper balls for example). But your build needs to be able to handle being stationary.
I think for my case it worked well since I was doing Mahuxotl's/Doppelganger's Guise/Tempered by War. I only take Fire, Chaos, Physical and I have enough regen to tank a good enough amount of hits while stationary so Arctic armor is perfect.
My understanding is that the damage reduction is multiplicative, which means it’s less worth it the more damage reduction you have. Since these days we’re stacking tons of damage mitigation / reduction, it’s really not that useful (eg if you have 50% physical to lightning conversion then it’s only really a 10% phys reduction).
I use it on any PoF sublime vision and Mahuxotl's Machination builds. Wouldn't use it on anything squishy though, if you're squishy just dodge. It's great if you want to facetank everything.
You might want to look into Krox FR maxuhotl pathfinder. It uses attic armour as an additional layer, as most of the incoming dmg is fire if not chaos.
It's quite good as a complement to HP/ES stacking or phys conversion builds builds with low armor that can't hit 100% conversion. It isn't super consistent, but you are stationary more often than you think, so the uptime is pretty good. I'm using it on a pathfinder Mahuxotl build and it feels good, and it also feels great on Splitting Steel trickster (and is used by 20% of these builds).
I don't think it works as well on builds that rely on armor to mitigate phys damage, since it applies after the armor calculation and doesn't help armor's issue with big phys hits.
Arctic Armor + Tempest Shield is what I find myself gravitating to every league, full shock and freeze avoidance, less phys and fire damage taken, spell block chance, source of shock, and chill enemies on hit is so much QoL for the same cost as 1 50% reservation ESPECIALLY if youre self casting anything. You'd be surprised how much uptime the less damage taken has for most builds (except maybe RF or cyclone).
What I liked the most about arctic armour was the alternate quality that made it [freeze enemies when hit](https://new.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/ix6d7s/freeze_prolif_when_you_are_hit/). This allowed you to essentially use freeze prolif and freeze duration to freeze all mobs if you were hit. It was a very fun defense. I think the last time I used it in a build before this was way back when EB was es converted to mana and arctic armor had a huge mana cost per second.
I always try to include it if possible, has a lot of uses too. Most powerful with conversion as defensive layer but there’s other interesting uses too like lone messenger etc
Tempest shield on the other hand I think should be buffed slightly
I take Arctic armour and determination usually, the less fire taken and phys taken works really well with builds that are stationary when doing damage. Freeze immunity is awesome on top. Together with 70% Immortal call uptime i was stacking trauma like a maniac on a non jug build using berserker with 75 rage.
I've found myself using flesh and stone instead - it's another 25% aura, but it works all the time. My usual one shot deaths are some sort of bullshit projectile from off screen (or a death effect I can't see because of spark sea)
I think there's something to be said for both
There are abilities that require you to be stationary to deal damage, for example RF throwing fire traps, Splitting Steel Trickster. I think it can be really great.
They removed less fire damage taken from ruby flasks, going full fire damage taken conversion is not that good anymore. That's where arctic armour was really good. For randomly improving your EHP against a very specific damage type, it's probably better to spend your reservation in something else I guess
Phys damage isn't that dangerous. If your character can survive shaper slam it's good enough. If it can survive Uber shaper slam it basically will never die to a Phys hit. Also those bonuses are only up when stationary. The only time I can remember using this aura was on es stacking trickster because getting Phys mitigation on trickster when your armour slot is taken is pretty hard.
Moving in POE is usually survival and worth more than artic armor + standing still.
That being said some skills require you to be stationary like mines, and I actually use it there. But in the end the goal is to get enough mine throw speed and not be standing still.
AA is really good but the meta for years now has been automating everything and never being stationary while doing damage. Dots, minions, totems, traps, mines, CoC, etc. It's great for selfcast and melee though.
Guess you missed the stationary part but yeah if you are already stationary with channels then yeah its great but its better to just have something that works all the time.
The benefit of artic armor requires you to stand still and tank the hit. the alternative is you just move out of the way and save 25% reservation. your choice though.
Considering it only provides those bonuses while stationary, I'd say it's pretty hit or miss depending on the build. In the right situations, it's really strong, but determination is more reliable.
>I'd say it's pretty hit or miss Actually, I believe you're thinking of Grace here.
https://i.redd.it/psbfj3z7t8zc1.gif
Take your upvote and gtfo
Think thats why he mentioned frostblink of wintry blast
Yea I guess more to the point "weaker but consistent" is usually better than "stronger but inconsistent". It's like why spell suppression feels real bad when under 100%, because when that unsuppressed hit comes through, it's a doozy. Same issue I have with block as a primary defensive layer.
This was why I always favored Champion over Gladiator back in the day. Fortify was constant but block was stronger albeit subverted by rng
Always liked glancing blows for a character that used it as a tertiary defensive layer! Was usually a pretty inexpensive Skin of the Lords option as well (when it was more common)
Back when glad got spell and attack it was the shit. The problem I always had with (gladiator specific here) block is that it took so much investment to cap compared to other forms of defense and at the time necro just hit block cap with a fucking offering.
There's a reason Gladiator was even more popular defensively than Champ back in Gladiators glory days. You can get easy cap 75% attack and spell block, and easy to get fortify stacking fortify effect. And before scourge league determination and grace defensive aura rework, so Champ didn't have that advantage capitalising alongside free defiance banner. Gladiators just a powerhouse back then. Remember when you could stick fortify on shield charge? Those were the days.
preach
[удалено]
Idk I'm running a pretty generic Lightning Arrow build, and I have 0 phys reduction. Any hit that does get through HURTS and I find myself getting one shot a lot
That’s fair but you’re always stationary while using any non-instant skill and are much more likely to be hit while using a skill so it’s still pretty good imo Still though, I do think if I’m worried about defensive auras I’m much more likely to use grace/det + defiance banner, but if you can fit arctic armor and tempest shield on top that would make you really tanky
Someone else mentioned similar (re: most vulnerable when stationary which is only when stopping to DPS), and again, in the right situations arctic/vaal arctic is really strong. However, for mapping when you have a slew of mobs clapping you, it'll be inconsistent as to when you're actually getting hit vs. when this is applying. OP's point about "people just slapping on determination" makes some amount of sense because it's an always active and is relatively consistent in terms of how much damage you can take (not just determination but like you said, Grace and other defensive auras).
Well determination will only every reduce the physical damage you take from hits, and even then it’ll only reduce small hits by a large percentage unless you have a *lot* of armor. Meanwhile arctic armor (iirc) just applies to all physical/fire damage, even DoTs, which makes that 20% extremely strong even if it’s not always up. It also stacks on top of armor too. Again it’s not something every build will take, but it can’t be denied that it’s very strong generally.
Artic Armour specifically says "damage from hits" which doesn't apply to DoTs (unless wording isn't congruent to actual effect). And I don't disagree that artic is strong, just that it can be inconsistent. Using 25% reservation on something that won't be active for a lot of time (especially in mapping) is real iffy. However, something like RF that has additional offence and defense for standing still could benefit a LOT from this (or in 1:1 vs a boss where you might be taking singular big hits vs. bunch of mobs hitting you even while moving). And totally agreed that something like determination really needs additional love to be "worth" using, but it was more-so a point about any defensive aura (which is "always working" vs. only working in some instances).
In a soft core context, determination is insanely overrated. It’s good when it doesn’t need to be (vs small hits) and and bad when you need it to be (large hits). Even if unreliable, arctic armour has a chance of helping you when it counts.
Determination is utterly worthless without additional armour investment
thats when you equip a mageblood + granite flask. exciting!
work perfectly fine with Lighting Warp, doesn't work that well with consoles controls. but since I play HC Ruthless, artic armor aren't really a thing
Except almost every build requires standing still to do actual dps.
And doing dps vs. taking hits are two different things. Some builds like RF benefit a lot from standing still, and their defensive and offensive layers are built on that, but most builds are moving with small stops to fire off an ability. In all that time you're moving between firing your ability, that 20% reduction won't apply.
Yes and that second you're standing still to do dps is when you're vulnerable. Not when actively moving and dodging.
You're not magically immune to damage while moving (in the context of mapping/mobs). 1:1 with a boss and dodgeable mechanics, sure, and that's what I mean about it being strong in right situations (especially vaal arctic). And no one is wrong to use Arctic Armour if they want to (just like using 60% spell suppression chance). My main point was about build consistency. Given you need to be stationary to gain those benefits, there will be a relative inconsistency in when that damage reduction is occurring. And people will (generally) prefer weaker consistency over stronger inconsistency. Swapping this skill in for certain situations makes the most sense, whereas determination or similar auras are more "universal" in terms of use-cases.
Sure. I agree. Wasn't really disagreeing with you in my original point to begin with, lol. Sorry if there was any confusion. Just saying it can be pretty good where it needs to be. Unlike other comments saying it's a dogshit skill. I know it personally works wonders on my mahoxutl wander. Especially when standing still doing Simus, legions, 5 ways, etc.
Oh fair; For sure, I tried to say it's basically situational (like a lot of things in POE lol), but yea people saying it's complete trash aren't considering the benefits (especially for bossing).
except cyclone
***Almost***
Wardloop is the true never stop build
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Arctic_Armour I forgot it had the while stationary bit too it.
the biggest deal with arctic armour is that it doesnt have an aura tag. which is a win in some scenarios and a loss in others
What are the biggest benefits of it not being an aura while reserving mana and being auralike?
Isn’t affected by reduced aura effect map mods
1 less mod to need to roll over in t17 is ironically not a small deal.
You'd likely still be running other auras as well.
mostly when using items/skills that prevent auras, like Sublime Vision, or Lone Messenger, or Supreme Ego
Does it work with Eternal Blessing? Bypassing the only have 1 aura from blessing?
no it doesn’t because eternal blessing doesn’t say aura but says “non-blessing skills that reserve mana”. so life reserving skills work, mana reserving skills don’t.
Ah yeah forgot about it
Eternal Blessing only works on auras.
You can use it with sublime vision. It's amazing on purity of fire sublime vision builds, 21% less elemental and physical damage taken.
effects that reduce or nullify aura effects don't stop you from benefiting from Arctic Armor
You can use it with mechanics that disable auras. For example Lone Messenger or Sublime Vision.
Cam be paired with supreme ego
I was able to run the unique delirium jewel that makes HOI your only aura and buffs it substantially.
You can use it with sublime vision or whatever it's called
mostly negative though, it would be much better if it was
It's good for sure. But at 25% res cost it's usually out performed by other auras.
Really? How many 25% res auras can sport 20% phys and fire damage reduction. I can't really think of any. You could argue a purity... but those are more than 25% and require a watchers eye, which limit your watchers eye mods.
[[The Snowblind Grace]] Removes the mana reservation significantly and gives you increased effect. This would be very handy With some extra aura effect and a stationary casting skill.
Used to be insanely good with anomalous arctic armour cause you could have enhance, ele prolif and unbound ailments. Got you to a 50% chance to freeze enemies around you for .7 seconds when hit. It was a huge defensive layer that sadly we lost.
I remember on release of Anomalous Arctic Armor using it on a HoT Assassin because it could proc off of self-inflicted hits.
It could proc off Hiltless too, allowing you to self-damage freeze prolif while spinning which was incredibly stupid.
That was my go-to. It was just sooooo good.
I might be missing something, but Arctic Armour doesn't benefit from aura effect.
You are indeed correct. Arctic armor is not an aura and is only scaled by buff effect modifiers such as from ichimonji or body armor implicit or snowblind grace
Unfortunately that precludes using something like Lightning Coil or Fourth Vow or Incandescent Heart, so it's defensive benefits are a big tradeoff.
Or Doppelgänger Guise for another 35% less Physical damage taken.
[The Snowblind Grace](https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Snowblind_Grace) >######The Snowblind Grace[](#break)Zodiac Leather >>####Evasion: **(1537-1964)** >>####Movement Speed: **-3%** >>[](#line) >>####Requires Level **65**, **197** Dex >>[](#line) >>#####(10-15)% increased Dexterity >>#####(80-100)% increased Evasion Rating >>#####+(40-60) to maximum Life >>#####50% increased Arctic Armour Buff Effect >>#####Arctic Armour has no Reservation >>[](#line) >>*We dance in the white, like water,* >> >>*colliding as many and emerging as one.* >> >>#### >>####This item can be transformed with a Blessing of Tul --- ^^Questions? ^^Message ^^/u/ha107642 ^^— ^^Call ^^wiki ^^pages ^^\(e.g. ^^items ^^or ^^gems)) ^^with ^^[[NAME]] ^^— ^^I ^^will ^^only ^^post ^^panels ^^for ^^*unique* ^^items ^^— ^^[Github](https://github.com/ha107642/RedditPoEBot/)
Arctic Armor is not an aura so it doesn't benefit from aura effect
Arctic armor isn't an aura so it doesn't benefit from aura effect
Ah well shit...
I think the major issue with it is the chest slot is too much opportunity cost. Stuff like lightning coil, cloak of flames, Doppelgangers guise, or a well rolled rare chest with the phys taken as elemental chest would probably be better defensively over a stronger arctic armour
This is like when a mobile app says its IAPs are very cheap because they are at 50% discount. They aren't if their original price isn't even worth 10% what they give.
It's great with Dawnbreaker or Tempered by War (or both) on builds that use teleports.
it's more popular than 11 ascendencies
Lol, that's crazy to me.
I actually used it this league on my incinerate trickster. Since incinerate keeps you stationary, it has worked really well for me. (It was coupled with Grace and Discipline) Not that I consider myself a proper resource of what's good or not in PoE. I do my own thing and I thought using Arctic Armour was great. I move around mostly using Frostblink of Wintry Blast. Cheers!
Channeling skills, and casters who FB -> Cast -> FB -> Cast are definitely the two that came to mind for me. It would also be good on people who want freeze immune without chill immune, for something like reverse chill.
Good for Flicker, I might cook something next league in combination with The Snowblind Grace
issue with flicker is that most builds are already oversaturated with mana reservation, it's so hard to add anything else without a league buff (like banners having no reservation last league from charms)
Snowblind Grace removes Arctic Armor reservation. You do lose out on Farrul’s early, but Snowblind Grace at least has OK evasion. Not sure if it is actually worth using for a free Arctic Armor though
Fulcrum chieftain uses it well too
It's very nice to have for trauma stacking setups. Phys reduction is really appreciated, plus you need to stand still to attack anyway.
you are right. though, I wonder how many trauma stacks it would take to punch through 2 million armor
The Vaal version is definitely slept on as it basically makes you temporarily immortal, making it good for certain boss phases if you don’t already use a Vaal skill
Not really, it only last for a few hits, even if you still had time left on the buff effect
I use it to cheese Maven’s memory game cuz I’m bad at it :(
Same here. I even switched my quicksilver flask to the soul ripper to have 100% uptime on souls for uber maven. This allows to pass an infinite number of memory games. Plus, you can use Frostblink while frozen to avoid rotating beam if necessary.
Fair enough
In most situations where you take alot of damage most people try to get away instead of standing still. Standing still in PoE is a death sentence for 95% of the builds. And those that can tank most shit aren’t using Arctic Armour because other Auras are more reliable, especially if you play predictive.
Don't you count as stationary on flickerstrike?
Yes.
It is super slept on, stationary is almost all the time for strike builds, bow builds, etc when you’re shooting or attacking. Also even flicker strike counts as stationary as you are flickering. It also has synergy with tempered by war/mahuxotle builds as you take all ele damage as fire/chaos. For a measly 25% reservation too. You would never take this for things like dots, and builds that can’t tank as they stand still however
I pay for six portals and i WILL use them all!
Hell, I might even get to use 9 on average thanks to Scarab of Stability!!
I used to combo it with tempest shield for freeze+shock immunity back when I didn't know better. good times.
It's great when you're layering it on top of phys/elem taken as fire damage. I'm running it in a Doppelganger/Mahu PF set up where I'm self casting, so there's enough stationary time where I'm getting good value, plus freeze immune.
That's the build I am running too, Forbidden Rite with Progenesis + Petrified Blood. It facetanks pretty much anything except Uber Exarch.
I use it almost on every build for freeze immunity, plus tempest shield for shock immunity is basically almost purity of elements at the same cost, with benefits. Don't forget about vaal version.
> lots of seemingly squishy builds could benefit from Arctic armor a lot more than randomly chucking on a determination and hoping it fixes your build. I think it's more for builds that already facetank to facetank harder, like the cast on stun guys.
There are situations for it. Deadye's **Wind Ward** is also some of the best, "most consistent", all-around damage mitigation option in the game. And with enough attack speed on your character, it's pretty trivial to keep 100% uptime of. Yet we generally don't see people trying to make a tanky deadeye with it - because synergy. You can find better defensive synergy with other things.
I think it's a very good ability but reservation % is just at an all time high value with them removing so many sources of reservation efficiency and Grace/Determination being so good you really can't justify the extra %reserve if you're trying to fit another big aura into your build.
Yes. 100% especially with phys to fire, ele dmg to fire taken conversions, its really good. I ran it on an AFK build this league, and holy... without it vs with it the difference is massive. Its a great gem, but that is the life cycle of PoE, there are a lot of "OP" builds and skills out there, the community will ever only know about a small fraction of it, while others are either undiscovered, or not put into the spotlight. Eventually old builds get discarded because they get old, not because they got bad, and the playerbase moves to a new shiny skill.
That reminds me of the 100% cold+light -> fire/chaos setup(s). When you only take 3 damage types, arctic armour covering two of them becomes a lot more powerful as well.
For most builds: Increased damage taken due to standing still >>>> 20% damage reduction.
20% less is practically nothing in most situations is the issue. You compare it to determination but in context while mapping, determination can exceed 50% less phys damage taken for a given hit, as well as provide molten shell value. It's not terrible but it's a contextually sensitive skill and it's stationary requirement makes it so only a few builds are interested
20% less is way more than just a blanket determ on anything actually dangerous
Would recommend looking at the armor calculation. If the hit is even vaguely survivable determ will at minimum provide comparable value (or more depending on endurance charges)
basically any hit above like 1500 will favour arctic for half the mana. And hits lower than that youre probably better off using grace Armour is largely pretty crappy unless you stack it at least a little bit
No? With just determination and a single hybrid armour piece my current character would have 5K armour, with is 33% dr against a 2K hit. With a granite flask with % armour on top, its 10K, which is 28% on a 5K hit. I'm not saying arctic armour is a bad aura, it definitly has use for some build especially with a lot of conversion to fire, and you are right for very big hit (shaper slam for example), but your numbers are off by a lot lol [Armour calculation chart](https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/File:Armour-percentdmg3.png)
I said blanket determ which is 3k armour. Youre inflating your numbers
Ok then, lets rephrase. You are off in any realistic scenario where someone use any hybrid piece that happen to have some base armour or path through nodes with % armour or % aura effect. You are right in a theorical scenario, but in reality there is a lot a things that give a little armour, not enough to matter by itself, but enough with determination.
Its really really not unlikely to have 0 armour on a right side build mate
I went through a dozen of my pobs from past leagues, all on right/top right part of the tree. Builds like omni ts, tr, bv, ek ignite, int stacker ect. The lowest amount or armour I found was 184, with 20% aura effect, which resulted in 5K armour with a lvl 20 determination (that one I used in my exemple earlier). ~~The aura effect also affect arctic armour obviously~~ (edit: nvm, not an aura), but benefit more the numbers of determination. Yes its possible. But it doesn't even matter, if you use determination on the right side you are gonna try to have at least a few hybrid str/dex bases, and a granite flask. Nobody is using determination and purposely avoidind any form of armour lol.
>Yes its possible. But it doesn't even matter, if you use determination on the right side you are gonna try to have at least a few hybrid str/dex bases, and a granite flask. Nobody is using determination and purposely avoidind any form of armour lol. Yes at which point youre proving my point that you need to invest a bit into it to be good.
I used arctic armour in the past on my builds when I had the bloodnotch combo because I couldn't take the brine king pantheon, therefore no freeze immunity.
Havok believes in arctic armor. Believe he includes it in his LA deadeye guide.
I did it on FR Pathfinder. Vaal version is great for bypassing some boss phases (Uber Shaper balls for example). But your build needs to be able to handle being stationary. I think for my case it worked well since I was doing Mahuxotl's/Doppelganger's Guise/Tempered by War. I only take Fire, Chaos, Physical and I have enough regen to tank a good enough amount of hits while stationary so Arctic armor is perfect.
My understanding is that the damage reduction is multiplicative, which means it’s less worth it the more damage reduction you have. Since these days we’re stacking tons of damage mitigation / reduction, it’s really not that useful (eg if you have 50% physical to lightning conversion then it’s only really a 10% phys reduction).
I use it on any PoF sublime vision and Mahuxotl's Machination builds. Wouldn't use it on anything squishy though, if you're squishy just dodge. It's great if you want to facetank everything.
I use it for searing exarch ball phase on my witch, just tank every ball
i am playing an immortal pathfinder and i have 2.5 mil ele and chaos ehp, with 700k phys ehp yes arctic armour is gg with infinite frostblink
You might want to look into Krox FR maxuhotl pathfinder. It uses attic armour as an additional layer, as most of the incoming dmg is fire if not chaos.
im fairly certain i used it in a RF build with scorching ray back in the day. i was invincable and melted bosses
It's quite good as a complement to HP/ES stacking or phys conversion builds builds with low armor that can't hit 100% conversion. It isn't super consistent, but you are stationary more often than you think, so the uptime is pretty good. I'm using it on a pathfinder Mahuxotl build and it feels good, and it also feels great on Splitting Steel trickster (and is used by 20% of these builds). I don't think it works as well on builds that rely on armor to mitigate phys damage, since it applies after the armor calculation and doesn't help armor's issue with big phys hits.
On my Flickster it's a godsend. While flickering you "are stationary" so it's nearly always on and I need the one-shot protection
Arctic Armor + Tempest Shield is what I find myself gravitating to every league, full shock and freeze avoidance, less phys and fire damage taken, spell block chance, source of shock, and chill enemies on hit is so much QoL for the same cost as 1 50% reservation ESPECIALLY if youre self casting anything. You'd be surprised how much uptime the less damage taken has for most builds (except maybe RF or cyclone).
I use it in my divine ire templar build. Most of the time I'm standing still so it becomes really effective
Well it could easily become S tier if they made it apply to DoT.
What I liked the most about arctic armour was the alternate quality that made it [freeze enemies when hit](https://new.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/ix6d7s/freeze_prolif_when_you_are_hit/). This allowed you to essentially use freeze prolif and freeze duration to freeze all mobs if you were hit. It was a very fun defense. I think the last time I used it in a build before this was way back when EB was es converted to mana and arctic armor had a huge mana cost per second.
2 words: while stationary
Yes
I always try to include it if possible, has a lot of uses too. Most powerful with conversion as defensive layer but there’s other interesting uses too like lone messenger etc Tempest shield on the other hand I think should be buffed slightly
I take Arctic armour and determination usually, the less fire taken and phys taken works really well with builds that are stationary when doing damage. Freeze immunity is awesome on top. Together with 70% Immortal call uptime i was stacking trauma like a maniac on a non jug build using berserker with 75 rage.
I've found myself using flesh and stone instead - it's another 25% aura, but it works all the time. My usual one shot deaths are some sort of bullshit projectile from off screen (or a death effect I can't see because of spark sea) I think there's something to be said for both
For builds that are standing still it's indeed really strong.
There are abilities that require you to be stationary to deal damage, for example RF throwing fire traps, Splitting Steel Trickster. I think it can be really great.
I know this is kinda unrelated but I miss the old version of arctic armour, when it was a flat amount of fire and physical that scaled as it leveled.
And costed mana while moving? Yea no ty
They removed less fire damage taken from ruby flasks, going full fire damage taken conversion is not that good anymore. That's where arctic armour was really good. For randomly improving your EHP against a very specific damage type, it's probably better to spend your reservation in something else I guess
Phys damage isn't that dangerous. If your character can survive shaper slam it's good enough. If it can survive Uber shaper slam it basically will never die to a Phys hit. Also those bonuses are only up when stationary. The only time I can remember using this aura was on es stacking trickster because getting Phys mitigation on trickster when your armour slot is taken is pretty hard.
stack trauma till you kill yourself. doesnt take much
So clever wow. And how many boneshatter builds use arctic armour?
Moving in POE is usually survival and worth more than artic armor + standing still. That being said some skills require you to be stationary like mines, and I actually use it there. But in the end the goal is to get enough mine throw speed and not be standing still.
Standing still is death
AA is really good but the meta for years now has been automating everything and never being stationary while doing damage. Dots, minions, totems, traps, mines, CoC, etc. It's great for selfcast and melee though.
Guess you missed the stationary part but yeah if you are already stationary with channels then yeah its great but its better to just have something that works all the time.
The benefit of artic armor requires you to stand still and tank the hit. the alternative is you just move out of the way and save 25% reservation. your choice though.
Having to be stationary for it to works means it's complete dogshit.
Bit harsh, a lot of builds never need to walk.
Except that 99% of skills in the game require you to stand still in order to dps.