Two-handed · Frost · Burst · freeze and shatter · earlier access
Frost Lancer
The same spear core, reached earlier: Frost is the first element the game gives you, and Frost Spike plus Shattering Frost replace the Chapter 8 fire gears.
≈ 33% crit chance on the main weapon · Attack Speed at 92% of the cap's benefit · Movement at 100%. Health, Stamina and Spirit come from your Abyss Tree, not gear. Attack counts weapon + necklace + rings + Destruction gears; Crit counts weapon, chest and necklace; speed counts every global source. Gold bars are refinement; orbs are sockets.
Alabaster Halberd
Halberd · spear moveset · Tier 3 · +10
- Attack 35
- Critical Rate Lv 4
Abyss gear sockets · 5/5
Recipes below are crafted at any Witch's Altar under Craft Abyss Gear, and only after you have read that gear's Gear Blueprint from your inventory. The listed Tier I gears are the ingredients and are consumed.
GroundsurgeTurning Slash · SpiritShatters the ground in a frontal cone of stone spikes. Hits on impact and again on burst, high stagger, no imbue needed. Roughly 2× Wound of Darkness in a side-by-side wiki test.
Get it Extract from Melted Ambition (Myurdin, Chapter 6-7) at a Witch, or craft: Destruction I + Fortification I + Aegis I with the Gear Blueprint. · pinned on the map
Frost SpikeSkill key · SpiritA wave of frozen spikes in a frontal cone. Big burst with AoE reach.
Get it Reward of the White Blizzard faction quest Wraith in the Frost (Beloth, the Darksworn).
Shadow ClawHeavy Attack / Forward Slash · StaminaThree forward swipes, Black Fang's own move. Strong single-target damage.
Get it Reward of the faction quest Legendary Wolf (Howls from the North Gate). To craft one instead you must first read Gear Blueprint: Shadow Claw (a 2% drop from Exploration Dispatch missions at the Timeworn Ruins or Kingshield Dig Site); the recipe then appears at any Witch's Altar under Craft Abyss Gear and consumes Destruction I + Swift I + Haste I + Vitality I. · pinned on the map
Destruction III+3 Attack on the weapon it sits in.
Get it Craft at Elowen: two Destruction II.
- Destruction III
+3 Attack on the weapon it sits in.
Get it Craft at Elowen: two Destruction II.
Where to get it
Craft at any Smith (14 Iron Ore, 3 Copper Ore) after reading Two-Handed Weapons of the World Vol. III. Sold by Omar, Gurbit and Tranan.
Gate: Open world, early
Where it all drops
Every pin is a confirmed map marker for this build's items and abyss gears. Select a slot above to highlight its pins; tap a pin to jump to the slot.
Where to get it
No fixed pin: Any cloak, Witch's Ring. Crafted at any Blacksmith, bought from a travelling vendor, or dropped somewhere the map data does not list (the Nest of Valor island).
Coast, rivers and relief traced from the public Pywel tiles at crimsondb.gg; pin coordinates from its marker data. World coordinates are the game's own.
How it plays
Frost comes from the Spire of Ringing Truth, the first abyss chain you can finish. A frost-imbued Turning Slash freezes what it hits, Groundsurge's second hit shatters it, and Shattering Frost adds a delayed ice explosion. Frost Spike gives the build a second cone on its own key. Nothing here needs Chapter 8 or 9.
- 1Forward Slash (Shadow Claw) into a Frost-imbued Turning Slash: Groundsurge double-hit on a frozen target shatters it.
- 2Frost Spike on its own key between slashes for a second cone of burst and stagger.
- 3Shattering Frost detonates a moment after any frost-imbued hit; keep moving so the explosion lands as the enemy recovers.
Skills
Frost Mantle Lv1 → Imbue Element Lv4
Frost is unlocked by the Path of Trials after the Spire of Ringing Truth. Lv4 enables Elemental Turning Slash.
Turning Slash Lv3 + Proficiency, Rend Armor
Same chain as Spear Nuke.
Forward Slash Lv3, Nature's Echo
Shadow Claw button and its free echo.
Why it works
Earlier than fire
Flame needs the Tree of Slumber chain and Flames of Judgment needs Chapter 8. Frost needs one spire. Swift III takes the second glove socket because there is only one frost armor gear worth a slot.
Freeze then double-hit
Groundsurge hits on impact and again on burst. Against a frozen target the second hit is a shatter, which is why it is kept over Wound of Darkness here.
Crit from sources that cost no weapon socket
The Kuku Flame-Resistant chest (Lv3) and the White Lion Necklace (Lv4) give crit to every weapon you own. With a Lv4 weapon that is Lv11 before a single Insight gear, which is where the game's crit curve has already paid out 82% of its cap.
Attack Speed where it is global
Attack speed on gloves, boots and rings applies to every weapon; on a weapon it only works while that weapon is drawn. Tariv Cloth Gloves (Lv3), one Swift III in the boots (Lv3) and the Witch's Ring (Lv4) reach Lv10, which is 78% of the cap's benefit. Chasing the last five levels costs more sockets than it returns.
Movement Speed on exactly 15
Tariv boots 3 + two Lv4 earrings + the stowed shield's 2 + Haste II = 15. Nothing wasted, and mobility is what lets a 20-Spirit nuke build reposition instead of trading hits.
A shield you never raise
Defense and Movement Speed from a shield count while it hangs on your back. Damage Reduction (Aegis) does not, so both shield sockets are Fortification III for +18 Defense.
Momentum on the helm
The helm has one socket and nothing else competes for it. +35% Turning Slash damage is the largest single multiplier in the game.
Alternatives
- Weapon. Vow of the Dead King once you reach northern Pailune; it is the Alabaster Halberd with a better look.
- Chest. Kuku Ice-Resistant Armor (Movement Speed Lv3, Ice Res 10) if you fight in the frozen north; drop Haste II from the boots for a second Swift III.
Story gates
- Frost imbue: Spire of Ringing Truth → Path of Trials
- Frost Spike: White Blizzard quest Wraith in the Frost (Beloth)
- Groundsurge: Myurdin, Chapter 6-7
Confidence. Shattering Frost's exact detonation rules come from a single wiki description. Everything else is shared with Spear Nuke.