BTW, I really like the idea of a pure cold mage and am leveling one right now. I want to see if it's feasible for CC as I can't get the same quality of CC on my thaumaturge with cold spells as I can with my other combos.
pure cold seemed pretty groovy for damage, but the 'freeze' effect breaking so easily means a GWF is going to shatter them pretty much as soon as they're frozen. I went Thaumaturge with it and it worked ok in leveling dungeons as DPS, not so sure about it's CC though. I was probably wasting my time having Shield in my Encounters with it, didn't get to play enough with Icy ray to see if the extra damage feat would have been worth it.
If you kept CoI on Tab it would probably refreeze in them in seconds though. Perma-interrupt could be viable with a good group I guess but I wouldn't try it in T1 PUG's. I'm no glutton for punishment lol.
Alternatively, if you went with Entangling Force on TAB you could build five Arcane Stacks faster than the six chill stacks and combine Chilling Presence along with Arcane Presence for raw damage increase. With enough crit that could work, but Icy Terrain can't crit so it might be worth looking at other options to apply chill.
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
In dungeons I play only for crowd control. No single target dps spells except tabbed EF. Both dailies are CC as well. Oppressive force is underestimated I think, it even stuns the boss for a brief moment, which give people the vital moment to recover in a tight situation. However, I come top on the kill rank, and always 1st or 2nd on dps. It's always a good TR that beats me.
Damage is not important to this build but one should be aware of the goal of crowd control:
1. Protect being rushed by adds
2. Maximise team DPS.
The first is a given with our powers
The second depend on the exact timing and positioning of where you choose to set off your power in relation to
1. The number of mobs
2. Amount of scattering
3. Health of a particular team member
4. Type of mobs, ranged or melee
You have to learn to adapt in these situations either to prevent damage to someone or increase overall group DPS.
In dungeons specially, it's not always about how you play it's also about the other classes too, if they do knock backs when you are CCing, it's counter effective. A good team always complements each other.
Comments
pure cold seemed pretty groovy for damage, but the 'freeze' effect breaking so easily means a GWF is going to shatter them pretty much as soon as they're frozen. I went Thaumaturge with it and it worked ok in leveling dungeons as DPS, not so sure about it's CC though. I was probably wasting my time having Shield in my Encounters with it, didn't get to play enough with Icy ray to see if the extra damage feat would have been worth it.
If you kept CoI on Tab it would probably refreeze in them in seconds though. Perma-interrupt could be viable with a good group I guess but I wouldn't try it in T1 PUG's. I'm no glutton for punishment lol.
Alternatively, if you went with Entangling Force on TAB you could build five Arcane Stacks faster than the six chill stacks and combine Chilling Presence along with Arcane Presence for raw damage increase. With enough crit that could work, but Icy Terrain can't crit so it might be worth looking at other options to apply chill.
Damage is not important to this build but one should be aware of the goal of crowd control:
1. Protect being rushed by adds
2. Maximise team DPS.
The first is a given with our powers
The second depend on the exact timing and positioning of where you choose to set off your power in relation to
1. The number of mobs
2. Amount of scattering
3. Health of a particular team member
4. Type of mobs, ranged or melee
You have to learn to adapt in these situations either to prevent damage to someone or increase overall group DPS.
In dungeons specially, it's not always about how you play it's also about the other classes too, if they do knock backs when you are CCing, it's counter effective. A good team always complements each other.