Marauder - [2.6] The Curse Whisperer - Tri-Curse CI Whispering Ice Berserker - Viable for Everything - Forum - Path of Exile (2024)

Leveling with the Whispering Ice is a blast. You can start using it at lv 33 and switch to CI at the same level, although it makes more sense to switch at lv 39. This way you get used to the play style and feel very comfortable by the time you graduate from the storyline content into the maps.

Video: Leveling as CI with the Whispering Ice (Templar version)

Don't listen to the people who say that leveling as CI is hard. It is for other builds, but not for this one, as long as you use the recommended items and take tree nodes in the recommended order.

It does not get any harder at higher levels and diffculties, as long as you do the recommended upgrade in A4C.

Other than the staff (that may cost 1-5c depending on the league), all other items used for leveling from 39 to 70 can almost always be found on poe.trade for 1 alc or less (with a total budget of 10-12 alc plus the staff). Some of the items for leveling can be easily crafted with minimal currency investment.

Before starting

This build is based on The Whispering Ice. You must have the staff before proceeding past lv 39 with this guide. If you don't have the staff, you can level any way you know how, but this guide will not work after lv 39 without Icestorm. Other skills such as Firestorm will not have enough dps/leech for safe and fun leveling as CI.

It is highly recommended to obtain Pyre before lv 39 (or at least before A4C), although a ring with high Int and some resists can work too. If you already have Astramentis, it will make everything trivial.

And the first three jewels. One must be Fertile Mind and one Brute Force Solution, any +Int will do. The last one ideally Izaro's Turmoil, but those can be expensive early in a new league, so a cheap jewel with 2 useful mods (see Gear-Jewels) will do until later.

The following items, or similar, must be obtained before lv 39:

Everything before lv 39 is way too easy and you can use any self-found gear to get there.

Useful twink items for trivializing lv 1-39:

Don't skip quests that give skill or respec points:

Start

Your starting skill is Heavy Strike. Use it to kill Hillock and throw it away. Take ground Slam as your reward from Tarkleigh. If you already have twink gear - great. If not - you'll still do fine. Use a two-handed mace or staff with the most damage you can find.

You will be leveling as a regular life/armor Marauder until lv 39. Any self-found gear with life and armor will do.

Lv 2: Buy a Paua amulet from Nessa for mana regen.

In the skill tree, go up via the Str nodes and head to Shaper:
Your first 11 skill points (lv 11)

Submerged Passage: Go to town and take Ancestral Protector to help you kill rares and bosses.

The Climb: Rescue Navali. Get prophecies from her any time you find silver coins. They can be extremely helpful. Save crafting prophecies for lv 39.

Axiom Prison: Go to town, take Added Fire Damage as your reward from Nyssa, buy another copy from her, support Ground Slam and Ancestral Protector (or just have them all in a 3L until later).

Killed Brutus: Take Rallying Cry as your quest reward and start using it. Buy Leap Slam to leap over obstacles.

Keep moving right, through Foresight, to Harrier:
Lv 18 Tree

Cavern of Wrath: Take Sunder as your reward from Nessa and start using it. From here to lv 39 just annihilate everything in front of you with Sunder and use the totem to help with the bosses.

Act 2: Go West, open the passage, finish The Way Forward, kill Alira, kill The Weaver, take Melee Physical Damage as your reward from Silk.

Lv 18: Support Sunder and Ancestral Protector with Melee Physical Damage. Go East, kill Fidelitas, take Herald of Ash as your reward, start using it.

Lv 20: Equip Astramentis if you have it and say good-bye to stat requirement woes. Help Kraityn.

After Harrier you just prepare for the switch to CI and the Whispering Ice. Take 3 jewels sockets, Vaal Pact, Ghost Reaver, Snowforged:
Lv 35 tree

You can put any jewels that help Sunder (physical, melee, area damage) into those sockets temporarily. You will replace them with the jewels prepared for the Whispering Ice mentioned above.

Finished Crematorium: Take Warlord's Mark as your reward from Maramoa. Do not level this gem if you don't have Astramentis, because you won't have enough Str to use it after converting your Str nodes to Int at lv 39.

Lv 24: Buy Discipline (from another class, Marauder doesn't get this gem) and start leveling it. You don't need to actually use it yet, just put it into a socket and level it.

Lv 31: Help Siosa in the Library, take Fortify as your reward and support Sunder with it (4L).

Killed Voll: Take Summon Chaos Golem as your reward from Oyun and start using it.

Lv 36-38: Save these 3 skill points.

Lv 38: If you have Astramentis, you can start using CWDT - Immortal Call - Inc Duration.

Reaching lv 39 is the turning point of your experience: you can equip your Whispering Ice and spec into CI! Do it! Use the saved points to take CI and Infused Shield:
Lv 39: A4 Normal

Put the prepared jewels into the sockets: Brute Force above the start, Fertile Mind near Vaal pact, and the DPS jewel near Harrier. This will convert your Str and Dex nodes to Int.

You need 59 Str to equip the staff. If you don't have Astramentis, you need an amulet with as much Int as possible and some Str. Look for a rare amulet that has Int or Int+Str implicit, Int explicit and optionally All Stats and extra Str. Example:

Stop using the twink gear. From now on, you must be wearing gear with as much Int and ES as you can find. Your armor, helmet, gloves and boots must have Int AND ES. No need to buy the top rolls this early, just look for cheap items with Int, ES and some resists.

Special mentions:

Shavronne's Pace is by far the best boots for leveling all the way to 70. They are very cheap and common and give you 35% inc movement speed (you are always on full life with CI). Get them.

Icetomb is very common and cheap. It has good Int and ES, takes care of your cold resist and makes you immune to chill.

Doedre's Scorn is another cheap unique great for leveling, and it gives you extra damage for cursing the enemy too. This helmet is good until you reach 1200-1300 Int, somewhere around lv 80-85. After that Black Sun Crest will become the top option.

You can craft your own armor easily with no budget at all. You must have met Haku and Catarina by now. Don't ignore them. Helping them once or twice gets them to lv 2, and you can invite them to your hideout or just place their crafting benches there (type: /claim_crafting_benches).

All you need from the armor at this point is a level-appropriate amount of ES (example: see the wiki for ES gloves; at lv 39 you want Embroidered or Silk gloves) and 20+ Int. Pick up the drops of those types. If you happen to find a magic or rare drop with 20+ Int and extra ES - that's great. If not, you have options:
- if you have a rare drop that already has 20+ Int: craft increased %ES on it (Haku)
- if you have a rare drop without Int: craft Int on it (Catarina)
- if you have a white drop: use a transmutation orb and hope for Int or ES, then use an augmentation orb.

Use the belt slot to get as much resistance as you can.

Your staff should be at least 4S / 2L and have these gems in it, in the order of importance: Scorching Ray, Cast while Channelling, Life Leech, Elemental Focus, Controlled Destruction (5S), Cold To Fire (6S). SR must be linked with CwC. No other links required, all support gems in the staff apply to Icestorm automatically.

Of the staff gems, only Life Leech, Fire Penetration and CwC are available to Marauder, the rest have to be obtained from other classes.

Your two auras must be Discipline and Blasphemy+Warlord's Mark.

From that point on, you will be steamrolling everything on your way through the game. Use Quicksilver flasks to move fast, with various useful mods such as anti-freeze, anti-bleed, extra resists, etc.

Important: If you try to range kill everything, you lose the massive advantage of the WM aura. Don't be afraid to get close to the enemy! Very few enemies can really hurt you through that leech, stun and chill. The radius of the aura is very small at first, but it will grow substantially as you level the gem and take Blast Radius.

Once you get used to this new play style, you can do the Normal Labyrinth. Dodge Izaro, don't tank him. Take Pain Reaver for its awesome leech.

Next:
- Arcane Focus
- Deep Wisdom
- Blast Radius
- Occultist's Dominion
- Fire and Frost Walker
- Elemental Overload
- Avatar of Fire
Lv 55 tree

A4 Cruel: Upgrade your gloves, belt and non-unique jewelry before facing Cruel Daresso and Malachai. Get more Int, ES, and start looking for resists for Merciless.

Elemental Overload: Start using Orb of Storms to trigger it.

Avatar of Fire: Convert your damage to fire for the double-dipping bonuses and resist penetration. Your staff must have Cold to Fire now. Gems: Life Leech, Cold To Fire, SR - CwC, Fire Penetration (5S), Elemental Focus (6S).

Lv 58-59: Close the tree loop by taking the Int nodes down from EO. Refund Foresight and the two ES nodes next to it. You don't need them. 750 Int = 150% increased ES. This build's ES is based almost entirely on Int, not those tiny +%ES nodes. Take Potency of Will.
Lv 59 tree

Next:
- jewel socket between Witch and Templar (Izaro's Turmoil or rare)
- Coldhearted Calculation (Shadow area)
and head to the Templar area:
- Light of Divinity
- Retribution
- Amplify
- Elementalist
Lv 69 tree

Finish the storyline content if you care about it, or grind to lv 73 quickly in the Lake. Don't forget to free Deshret. Grab the final resist/ES nodes:
- Faith and Steel (Templar area)
- Nullification (Shadow area)

Lv 73: Wear your endgame gear and do the Cruel and Merciless Labyrinth. Take Rite of Ruin, then Crave the Slaughter.

You can grind to lv 80 in the Lake easily or work on completing maps for the Atlas bonus. You should be safe enough in low- and mid-tier maps. Keep upgrading your gear.

Get the 3rd curse next:
- Whispers of Doom
Lv 77: Safe and Sound

By then your staff really should be 6S. Gems: Scorching Ray - Cast while Channelling, Life Leech, Cold to Fire, Fire Penetration.
The 6th socket:
- Concentrated Effect for tough bosses
- Elemental Focus for map clearing
- Item Rarity for MF'ing
SR has to be linked with CwC and optionally with EF for more damage. CE, FP and LL never need to be linked.

You are good to go for all content in PoE! Do the Endgame Labyrinth and take Aspect of Carnage. Farm Uber Lab for xp, currency, maps, sellable frags and uniques, random quality gems for the GCP recipe. Get the leech enchantment for your boots, then start enchanting the helmet. And keep working your way through the Atlas.

Video: Uber Lab farm run

Then just add more and more power:
- Lv 79: Templar area jewel socket (Brute Force Solution)
- Lv 81: Witch area jewel socket (Izaro's Turmoil or rare)
- Lv 85: Shadow area jewel socket (Izaro's Turmoil or rare)
- Lv 88: Jewel socket between the Scion start and Vaal Pact (Fertile Mind; a Dex node nearby is converted twice!)
Lv 88: The build is complete

At this level you can comfortably farm T16 and the Shaper once your gear is good enough to survive them.

And for the final levels, should you decide to go that far, a few choices:
- (1 point) replace the useless Curse Cast Speed node near Whispers of Doom with the two Curse Effect nodes (+10% curse efficiency)
- (2 points) Ancestral Knowledge
- (3 points) Trickery
- (3 points) Catalyse, Thief's Craft or Ballistic Mastery (they are all equal and give 40 Int)
- (4 points) jewel socket near Whispers of Doom: Fertile Mind plus Agility, or Brute Force Solution plus Might
You can switch between these options every time you level up. Refund something smaller, grab something bigger.

If/when you manage to overcap your resists with great items, you can drop Nullification, Faith and Steel and eventually even Kraityn and use those points to get more Int/DPS. Do not worry about losing ES nodes, your ES comes from Int.