Self-cast Frostbolt in 2018 LUL

Frostbolt is legit as a skill in PoE. It essentially bypasses the two hardest parts of making a successful archer character. Frostbolt always pierces and you don't need a very good weapon to start with it. You can run it successfully on any of the top 3 classes of the wheel and probably Scion but idk what to take there. I say that because I am a fucking Elementalist and this build clears red maps like butter.

Do not go elementalist. Go inquisitor or assassin. Please I'm warning you. Just take the good stuff they have involving crit and you will do loads more damage than me. Even occultist would be better than elementalist and I will probably respec sometime in the future.

My finished tree is something like this.

The biggest damage pickups are the spell crit nodes. Crit is such a damage increase that there's no reason not to pick it up. It also synergies with FB(frostbolt) quite well, as it will freeze automatically on crit. You could drop either some cast speed or the upper left crit wheel based on taste. You can also drop the ES at the start but it's a ok boost and I get two hybrid wheels anyway and run ES gear with life. I like cast speed a lot to keep the mobs frozen until they are dead.

FROSTBOLT LINKS:
Frostbolt > Spell Echo > Hypothermia > Cold Pen> Arcane Surge> Faster Casting/Controlled Destruction/Ele Focus

I'm of the opinion that unless you get absurd mana regen from items or use some unique to get around it, you need some way to regen mana with FB as it drains it extremely quickly. Arcane Surge does that and give you comparable damage to the other gems in this link. The 6th link is kinda up to you but I gave the three main ones. Ele focus gives major dps but you lose your freeze. I socket it for big boss battles.

Auras/Curses/Heralds: This is kinda tricky as FB. Curse AoE is extremely short and your FBs go off screen. The three options are really Frostbite for bosses, or Warlords/Assassins Mark for general use/sustain. My tree is heavier in ES to give a bigger buffer for the sustain as well. For trash it actually does sustain well with the marks as once your freeze anything it's a free hp popsicle.

Auras: Again up to you. I like discipline, but grace is also good. Clarity can help but will severely limit your mana pool, you can probably pick some mana nodes up if you want to run that and drop Arcane Surge. Wrath is another choice that could give some extra dps if you're sure you don't need defensive auras.

Heralds: FB can get some damage and possible charge generation here. Herald of Ice >Ice Bite >Onslaught >Culling Strike can reliably generate charges on high level mobs! The build has no other real use for a 4 link lol.

Other stuff: Golem and movement tech. I still think caster movement tech sucks. Frost bomb for bosses!


Items to consider:
Required: Two of these. Four skill points for free GMP.
Good wand: A wand with >100% spell damage, >90% spell crit, and some cast speed in that order. Not terrible expensive either. Adding a crit multi roll will break your bank though. If your looking for a perfect wand, add crit multi, added cold to spells, and increased cold. Two of those will get in into 2mil dps territory.

Recommended:
FB's biggest problem is single target. This gives 20 free pen so it's pretty needed. There are a lot of good amulets tho. One with high crit multi might outpreform even this.
Sames. Overcap your cold resist by a lot or just play Inquisitor lol.
These boots are good for quite a bit until you have a lot of damage then you don't need them any more.
I only recommend one of these until your gear is perfect. It's not that much of a boost really.
Eventually rings with crit on them.

Meme options:
I use this as my offhand because I wanted to. It gives a lot more damage!
Unique gloves!: There are a lot of these. Some of the rampage ones, maligaro's, even hrimsorrow will boost your dps quite a bit.