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Keeping the Control in Control Wizard

kelthienkelthien Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 17 Arc User
edited May 2013 in PvE Discussion
Hey everyone!

So my CW is working up towards level 60. As I hit end-game, I'm wondering if anyone has some tips for a control-heavy control wizard. Most of the builds I see emphasize damage rather than control, and I'm wondering what our possibilities are.

I'm currently looking at something like the following:

At-Will:
Ray of Frost - solid single-target chill/freeze boosted by Feats
Chilling Cloud - AoE chill, though the radius/speed are a bit disappointing. Works well with other AoE chills

TAB: Conduit of Ice - AoE damage and chill. Tricky to control, so better off tossing this on and leaving him alone.

Encounter:
Icy Terrain - More chill! Great to use along with ChillingCloud and Conduit of Ice for rapid Freezes.
Steal Time - Not an ice power, but AoE daze is just delicious. Especially if they're standing on Icy Terrain.
Ice Rays - Don't personally have this one yet, but it sounds like a good combo for Ray of Frost. Chill on two more targets can't be bad. If not, Chill Strike for the synergy with the end-tree Paragon feat.

Dailies:
Singularity - Just can't even enough of this! especially combined with all our targeted control skills. Chilling cloud, Icy Terrain, and Steal Time just combo with this SO well.
Ice Storm - Not my favorite, but not sure what else would work well. Nice damage, chill stacks, and the knock-back can be an ok "oh <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>!" button.

Feats:
Heroics - Not too interested in typing them all out. I'd probably go for AP gain, encounter cooldown, cold dmg buff, and threat mitigation.
Paragon: Oppressor tree feels like the best.
I'm looking at repel-when-struck and dmg on chilled enemies. T2 is pretty meh; I'm not taking Sudden Storm and I rarely need to run after teleporting. for t3, another hit of Chill on Ray of Frost looks delicious. I'm LOVING the idea of Alacricity, though it's not a damage build, and Shattered Strike is ok I suppose. It might make a nice combo with Icy Terrain. Get a few stacks up on a group, then explode them away and freeze them in place.

Anyone have any thoughts? My biggest disappointment so far is just the lack of actual control powers in our control tree. T2 is disappointing and it seems like we're SUPER dependent on chill+freeze for control. I'd love to see some synergy with our arcane skills. entangling force adds 3 stacks of chill when it ends. Sudden storm has a 100% chance to apply 3 stacks of chill (rather than 50% chance for 1 stack).
Post edited by kelthien on

Comments

  • pantamimepantamime Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    THis is what I am using right now, mainly focused on Control with a secondary focus on AoE damage.


    At-Wills
    Magic Missile and RoF

    Encounters
    Tab Slot Chill Strike
    Sudden storm(or entangling force)
    Steal Time
    Icy Terrain

    Daily Powers
    Arcane singularity
    Ice Knife(for a finisher in a pinch)

    Class Features
    Storm Spell
    Evocation

    I went the Oppressor route as well. And Freeze is our only Always available means of control.

    I picked up the feats that increased AoE damage, Crit Chance, HP, AP gain

    Then i got the paragon feats of the Severe Reaction, Extra speed when teleport, Extra chill stacks from RoF, Extra damage when using control power, and the extra chill stacks to my Chill Strike

    Chill strike -> Icy Terrain -> Steal time-> sudden storm after that anything still on the terrain should be frozen or need just a single tap from RoF.

    I geared mainly for Recovery and Power and then some crit. I got my Chill strike down to about 8 second cool down and Sudden Storm is at like 6.6 sec cooldown. Steal time is still around 14ish and icy terrain is 10 something.

    But if you play around with the different spell rotations you can think of you will find some really neat tricks for mulitple opponent control.

    Go to the training dummies and mess around for a bit.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    PVPer rocking it Solo queue style since the dawn of Neverwinter
  • pantamimepantamime Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I just wanted to add that the fact this build is AoE based makes it just as good vs a single target or a small army of targets. That is the main reason I love it. It is really good at applying the pressure to the capture point in pvp too.

    Open with Arcane Singularity behind them slap Icy terrain down as their getting sucked up. Time steal time to hit them all when they drop back down. Then chill strike for AoE damage and more chill stacks. Sudden storm them all and watch at least a couple of them get caught in the terrains freeze as well.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    PVPer rocking it Solo queue style since the dawn of Neverwinter
  • kelthienkelthien Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 17 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I will TOTALLY have to try this! I love chill strike. When slotted, does it chill in an AoE or just on the primary target? Do you think the control-focus is "worth it" or kind of gimmicky? Just about to ding 50 here and trying to figure out how the end-game goes.
  • galendr1lgalendr1l Member Posts: 27 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Repulsion is an awesome control power.
  • pantamimepantamime Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Ive been spending most of my time doing PvP at 60 havent really run any epic dungeons yet. But from what I understand for epic level dungeons , Control>DPS as far as people are concerned for wizards.

    All those ADDS need to be dealt with. Especially the ones that can heal the other ADDS (Like Erinys in Mad Dragon)

    When slotted in the Tab Slot Chill Strike does Damage to the AOE and adds the chill to the AoE, but only main target is stunned.
    But with the Oppressor max feat it adds 3 chill to everything it hits so it is definitely awesome, especially in conjunction with Icy Terrain.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    PVPer rocking it Solo queue style since the dawn of Neverwinter
  • nickdavison76nickdavison76 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    galendr1l wrote: »
    Repulsion is an awesome control power.
    Yeh I use repel a lot. If you slot it in the special encounter skill slot to power it up you can repel groups not just single mobs.
    Hanspeth Voorg - Master Of The Arcane Arts
  • pantamimepantamime Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Repel should only be used when youre soloing or in PVP. If you are using it for every group most of the time people get mad at you. When i had it slotted back when i didnt have anything else to slot I rarely used it in groups, becuase TRs GFs GWFs all dont appreciate you throwing all the monsters across the room for no reason.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    PVPer rocking it Solo queue style since the dawn of Neverwinter
  • kelthienkelthien Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 17 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I like repel for tossing away enemies no one's dealing with. The knock-back and then the run they need to make to return to their targets takes them out of commission for a while.

    I've also used it to toss enemies into my allies when we want them bunched up for a guardian or juicy AoE.

    That said, it's a fun toy when used properly, but really not worth the slot for me in PvE. :-/
  • pantamimepantamime Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    yea using it in those ways is a great way to use it. But like you said, it isnt worth a spell slot when you get the higher end spells. Sadly a lot of new wizards dont use it in that (the correct) way
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    PVPer rocking it Solo queue style since the dawn of Neverwinter
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