Cold Snap my updated ice for review

kage1822

I completely overhauled what was once Hoarfrost, and did a complete overhaul using another build as a basis, then made a few changes making it my own...


PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Cold Snap

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Ego (Secondary)
Level 15: Recovery (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Soldier
Level 6: Enduring
Level 9: Brilliant
Level 12: Energetic
Level 15: Ascetic
Level 18: Investigator
Level 21: Amazing Stamina

Powers:
Level 1: Ice Shards
Level 1: Ice Blast (Rank 2, Hard Frost)
Level 6: Ice Form (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Frost Breath (Rank 2, Frost Bite)
Level 11: Ice Shield (Frigid Air)
Level 14: Concentration
Level 17: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Fire Snake (Trail Blazer)
Level 23: Rimefire Burst (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 29: Ice Sheath (Supercooled)
Level 32: Avalanche (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Masterful Dodge
Level 38: Evasive Maneuvers (Sleight of Mind)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Fire Flight (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Acrobatics

Specializations:
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Dexterity: Brush It Off (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Find the Mark (2/3)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)


I didn't do much CON, as this build is a Glass Cannon, and if I did the alterations correct, should be able to kill faster then taking much damage


first there should be dex + ego, regardless, but which to primary? I haven?t decided on which, because I can't make up my mind between the two, the two are good. Dex has that Expose Weakness, which is really good, ESPECIALLY if you go out of theme and grab Fire Snake. However, if you stay within theme, Expose debuff doesn't do much for Ice Blast w/ Hard Frost spamming. Need to parse this. Ego Primary offers a bit more defense and cost reduction via the specialization tree. Right now, she's lvl 20 and am going with DEX for my PSS, as I did take Fire snake coloring it blue to make it more of Ice theme, and later in the build as you can see getting Rimefire and coloring that blue as well. We'll see how this works out

The other choice is Recovery or Intelligence secondary. If you don't want to micro manage cooldowns, and want straight forward damage, take Recovery. If not, raising secondary Intelligence to high level (higher than either Dex or Ego) can provide perma active offenses and active defenses, along with lowering cooldowns


The explanations are actually from the original build that I used as a base, and wanted to add that here. so the original build and explanations on the PSS/SS' are in thanks of @l1ghtstar

kallethen

On my Ice Blast spam toon, I have Ego primary. And holy crap she cranks out a lot of damage WITHOUT even Heroic gear. I remember doing a few of Clarence runs back in the holiday season and she kept placing in the top five on the scoreboard.

She's very similar to the build you have, except Int instead of Rec and she lacks Rimfire and Firesnake. I know Firesnake would buff her damage even more, but it's just not in theme for her (full ice/cold).

Dex is good for a primary too. I don't think you could really do wrong either way.

aiqa

Unless you really don't mind using your EB a lot, I'd change ego to int and get msa.

kage1822

aiqa wrote: »

Unless you really don't mind using your EB a lot, I'd change ego to int and get msa.

dropping EGO, will drastically drop my ranged damage, as the main purpose of EGO SS is improving ranged damage, ranged knocks, and hold resistance

aiqa

Since ego affects the same damage bonus as ss bonus, form, passive and active offense, and all that is on a diminishing return, the overall damage bonus from ego is not that great. The time you spend on building energy affects your overall damage (and healing) far far far more.

flowcyto

I mostly agree w/ getting Int SS and MSA, but keeping Dex PSS if ya still want to focus on dmg. Because Ego's additive ranged dmg bonus soft-caps at 70, and because that dmg bonus heavily diminishes w/ dps-oriented FF builds, I wouldn't suggest getting Ego 2ndary for any build that isn't also using Ego for another purpose (like feeding one of the few Ego-scaling EUs, or perhaps for hold resist in pvp). But even in those rarer cases, I'd consider why you aren't using Ego PSS instead.

Int 2ndary can technically even lead to a dps increase just by the CD reduction alone if ur factoring stuff like ES/NM, SR, Rimefire, UR, Mental Storm, etc- though that would depend more on the build itself (and certainly more dps if using Int leads to less energy issues)

If ya took Int and MSA, then ya prob dun need Rec SS'd either and dun have to be as squishy by forgoing Con SS for it.

Also, Jim tested Brush It Off to not really be working properly:
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4587521&postcount=10

As small as it is, I'd get Combat Training over it.

The build is mostly fine, though. I imagine ur gonna need that threat wipe and defensive moves w/ this sort of build :x Hard Frost gets pretty crazy when fully supported.

kage1822

flowcyto wrote: »

I mostly agree w/ getting Int SS and MSA, but keeping Dex PSS if ya still want to focus on dmg. Because Ego's additive ranged dmg bonus soft-caps at 70, and because that dmg bonus heavily diminishes w/ dps-oriented FF builds, I wouldn't suggest getting Ego 2ndary for any build that isn't also using Ego for another purpose (like feeding one of the few Ego-scaling EUs, or perhaps for hold resist in pvp). But even in those rarer cases, I'd consider why you aren't using Ego PSS instead.

Int 2ndary can technically even lead to a dps increase just by the CD reduction alone if ur factoring stuff like ES/NM, SR, Rimefire, UR, Mental Storm, etc- though that would depend more on the build itself (and certainly more dps if using Int leads to less energy issues)

If ya took Int and MSA, then ya prob dun need Rec SS'd either and dun have to be as squishy by forgoing Con SS for it.

Also, Jim tested Brush It Off to not really be working properly:
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4587521&postcount=10

As small as it is, I'd get Combat Training over it.

The build is mostly fine, though. I imagine ur gonna need that threat wipe and defensive moves w/ this sort of build :x Hard Frost gets pretty crazy when fully supported.

so the explanations of the PSS & SS' I posted up by @l1ghtstar and the other stuff he went into explanation of was bad logic?

flowcyto

I'm not clear on the thread nor what words were his vs. yours, though I guess all that stuff below the build was his. If he's arguing that Expose Weakness doesn't stack w/ Firesnake's -resist, then I think he's mistaken. EW (and Detect Vuln) can't take resist past 0%, but all non-henchman targets have general resist, and stacking resistances like Firesnake's are added after EW/DV are considered.

(edit: not to discount Ego PSS as an option, as its good in general, but speaking purely for dmg I bet Dex PSS is still ahead there)

kage1822

flowcyto wrote: »

I'm not clear on the thread nor what words were his vs. yours, though I guess all that stuff below the build was his. If he's arguing that Expose Weakness doesn't stack w/ Firesnake's -resist, then I think he's mistaken. EW (and Detect Vuln) can't take resist past 0%, but all non-henchman targets have general resist, and stacking resistances like Firesnake's are added after EW/DV are considered.

(edit: not to discount Ego PSS as an option, as its good in general, but speaking purely for dmg I bet Dex PSS is still ahead there)

I'll look for the thread with his build and explanations and post it up

found it...


http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=203241

aiqa

l1ghtstar's ice build is not very optimal.

• Artic Beast: there are far far more usefull powers. Only take it for theme.
• Frigid Air: waste of adv points when you already have Frost Bite
• Serrated Shards: always does worse damage than R3
• Overdrive: is certainly not nearly the best EU choice. Ice Blast can easily deplete your energy when spammed. And when you need to heal a bit you'll end up using your EB a lot.

kage1822

aiqa wrote: »

l1ghtstar's ice build is not very optimal.

• Artic Beast: there are far far more usefull powers. Only take it for theme.
• Frigid Air: waste of adv points when you already have Frost Bite
• Serrated Shards: always does worse damage than R3
• Overdrive: is certainly not nearly the best EU choice. Ice Blast can easily deplete your energy when spammed. And when you need to heal a bit you'll end up using your EB a lot.

Well, i didn't take either arctic beast (which ı wanted for theme, but couldn't fit it in) or overdrive. I also went R3 on avalanche and forgone serrated shards, but did take frigid air as it's AoE around me when blocking

aiqa

My point was that all in all it is not a great example to follow. It has a lot of parts that are not optimal at all, so you'll have to decide for yourself what parts are good and what parts are not, which all makes it a bit useless as an template.

rtma

aiqa wrote: »

Since ego affects the same damage bonus as ss bonus, form, passive and active offense, and all that is on a diminishing return, the overall damage bonus from ego is not that great. The time you spend on building energy affects your overall damage (and healing) far far far more.

I'd wish Cryptic would put all Super Stats on a gradual Curve (Something like 200-300 Peaking) then throttling it for freeform, so specializations would be encouraged, going Str/Ego for Freeform would yield you similar Damage to Archtypes, cause you can, would be great, not to mention spec tweaks.