Ice Blast, Hard Frost, and Crippling Challenge

williamkony

Hard Frost causes Ice Blast to do an extra chunk of damage when hitting a Chilled target. Does this damage tick trigger Crippling Challenge a second time, for twice the threat generation?

bluhman

Regardless of whatever move you put CC on, I'm pretty sure its effect is independent of any extra damage the move does (i.e. even if the attack hits with 18 different ticks on the first second, CC only applies once). To add to that, the application cooldown of CC also means that it doesn't really matter, since CC normally can only be applied once every 10 seconds (Devour Essence might be exempt from this?)

Still, taking Hard Frost+CC is a perfectly valid combination, since the DPS generated from chill taps is much higher than an extra rank (under the chill condition of course).

flowcyto

Yeah, due to the inherent icd on most of CripC's effects, its doubtful that something like Hard Frost grants and extra 'tick' of the added threat when applied (although something may be going on w/ bleeds, at least I notice Shred + CC users generate an awful lot of threat vs. other types of tanks, rivaling Defense Combo spammers- but that's from casual observation, not actual testing- so its just a conjecture).

If I were to make an Ice tank, I'd prob do the usual R2 + Hard Frost setup for Ice Blast, and put CripC on Ice Cage and add sub-0 cellblock. Ice Cage won't deal as much dmg, ofc, but ya only have to tap it once every 8-10 sec, and it would serve a dual function as an interrupt. This would allow ya to max Ice Blast's dps as a tank and still have CripC's threat, damage debuff, and 'taunt' available.

kaiserin

I think it's worth mentioning that while the taunt of CC will only apply every 10 seconds, the +threat applies with every application of the power.

This makes fast activating spammy powers desirable for CC use (Devour Essense for instance is such a monstrous threat holder because the +threat applies on every tic of the power).

For an Ice Blast tank I'd go Hard Frost and CC, tap Ice Blast. You're losing next to no damage dropping R2 as the vast majority of damage is coming from Hard Frost.

williamkony

kaizerin wrote: »

I think it's worth mentioning that while the taunt of CC will only apply every 10 seconds, the +threat applies with every application of the power.

This makes fast activating spammy powers desirable for CC use (Devour Essense for instance is such a monstrous threat holder because the +threat applies on every tic of the power).

For an Ice Blast tank I'd go Hard Frost and CC, tap Ice Blast. You're losing next to no damage dropping R2 as the vast majority of damage is coming from Hard Frost.

Yup, was talking about the no-cooldown threat generation, not the taunt component. :P

Basically, I'm wanting to switch to a ranged threat holder instead of Devour Essence as I currently have, but I'm not sure what would be effective. Another consideration is Two-Gun Mojo, but I was just wondering if Ice Blast's four-hits-per-second(-when-ignoring-human-error) would outpace it. If it even works that way, of course.

Thanks for the answers so far, y'all.

monsterdaddy

While CC on maintains is great, high DPS is also a major factor. As Kaizerin mentioned R2 vs CC is not much damage lost. R3 vs CC on a high DPS power is a lot.

ceroy

The crippling challenge effect of disabling block can only be reapplied every 10 seconds, NOT the threat that crippling challenge causes (400 threat at level 40). The threat is applied on every tick of an attack. So with DE the crippling challenge is applied every .5 seconds. This was confirmed on the guide to threat management on these very forums.

flowcyto

kaizerin wrote: »

For an Ice Blast tank I'd go Hard Frost and CC, tap Ice Blast. You're losing next to no damage dropping R2 as the vast majority of damage is coming from Hard Frost.

well, Kaiz is the guru, so I'll defer to his stance on this one. I'd still prob try out R2 just to see how well it holds up. Hard Frost makes ice blast quite above most options in base dps as is.