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Author: Sonic_Reducer
4,845 Views
9 Comments
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So my CPU is blown and the computer won’t even turn on… figured it might be a good time to spend a few hours writing a guide on the laptop.
Ice/ice blasters can definitely be described as controller-like. That doesn’t mean they can’t do a lot of damage, despite their lack of a snipe… So here’s a list of the powers an’ what I think of them, all based on playing mine to 41 (50 if it weren’t for parents and technical issues =P).
The Ice Blast set:
Ice Bolt- Don’t put off taking it just because it’s minor damage. Animation is speedy, and damage does get pretty good once it’s slotted. It makes for a good filler in between your more powerful attacks, which you will have a lot of. Fully slot it eventually, personally I put 4 damage 1 accuracy and 1 endurance reduction SO on each of my blast powers, along with ice sword. Yes it’s lopsided.
Ice Blast- This is probably the first power to take. Very good damage, especially with my typical slotting. This will be the strongest attack for a good while, and later makes for a nice 2 hit KO with Bitter Ice Blast.
Frost Breath- Meh. Very high damage, and a cone, but it will agro insanely fast and if I recall uses a rather large amount of endurance. I skipped this, but if you want it I would suggest maybe a bit of range, and run out of melee range as soon as the animation finishes…
Aim- Awesome power. Usually only used in conjunction with Build Up, it can be picked up whenever you have a spare slot. Accuracy is a lot higher, but I usually don’t have an accuracy problem. When you first get it the use will mostly be for another 50% damage. I like to 3 slot this, all with recharge SO because the to-hit buff doesn’t need to go any higher.
Freeze Ray- Woohoo! This is immensely fun, and good for fighting bosses and stuff. Bosses themselves won’t freeze without 2 or more hits, and if you are well slotted they will be dead before it can charge twice. However you can freeze the lieuts/minions around them for a good amount of time. The damage will stay in the single digits, so I would recommend hold or recharge time slots, only need one because it recharges just before hold wears off with one hold SO.
Ice Storm- The rain powers are not a personal favorite. Sure the damage adds up but it agros a bit too much and tanks will hate you for breaking their mobs when everyone runs away. If you do like these powers, might want to put slow enhancements on it so that they can’t run away (which they will) quite as fast. Might be interesting to use with Ice Patch, but I haven’t tried it.
Bitter Ice Blast- If you skip this power, I will hunt you down. This is easily your strongest attack, only Ice Sword can do near as much. I put the typical 4 damage 1 acc 1 end, and this will take out well over half a minion’s life. With Aim and Build Up, this will be a one-hit kill on things as high as oranges.
Bitter Freeze Ray- Well… It’s another hold for when Freeze Ray misses, but the animation takes forever, not to mention it roots you. It does good damage, but the recharge is so slow and the animation/rooting so bad I would recommend trying it only if you *really* want to. Hold duration, recharge, and damage SOs might have a nice effect, but that won’t change the time it takes to use, and the fact that if you miss they can hit you while you finish using it.
Blizzard- Yay you get a ranged nuke! But wait… It’s DoT. This has some interesting effects, one being that it doesn’t miss like all those little one-hit nukes. When soloing or in a mostly blaster/troller/defender group, this is loads of fun and people find it impressive =P Sure it agros everyone, but if you’re solo they’re all dead, and if you have a team they can take the heat off you, not to mention that they are ridiculously slowed and have a tendency to slide around like figure skaters. Did I mention this lasts for 10-15 seconds? Your end won’t recover until a few seconds after, but with AM or a few catch a breaths you’ll be fine. Tanks and scraps though, tend not to find this as fun. It makes them run just like Ice Storm, so don’t use it if your team is herding, or at least let them know so they can be ready to round the villains up afterwards. Slot-I use 4 damage and 1 accuracy 1 recharge, endurance won’t help here because it takes it all, and even if you have some left over you can’t regenerate. Accuracy may be skippable too, seeing as it’s DoT one missed 10 damage will hardly make a difference. Don’t skip this power, just be careful how you use it.
Now, on to the Ice Manipulation powers!
Chilblain- You are forced into this. It’s an immobilize, practically useless once you hit 15-20, seeing as they will attack you anyways. Don’t bother slotting it while you do use it, just throw a duration or something in there, damage isn’t worth it.
Frozen Fists- A melee attack. It does some pretty lame damage, but you might want to have it around until you get Bitter Ice Blast. If you like it, slot it, if you don’t just get rid of it. Obviously slotting damage is good, seeing as it’s a pretty straightforward power, and some accuracy and endurance reduction is always good.
Ice Sword- Amazing! This is the best melee power you get, I keep mine 6 slotted, 4 damage 1 accuracy one endurance, all SOs. This is nearly as powerful as Bitter Ice Blast, and makes for a nice little fill after you unleash your 3 primary blasts at the beginning of the fight.
Chilling Embrace- Personally I skip this. It has some nice effects, but generally as a blaster I would like to stray from the PBAoEs that make an ice tank so effective. The taunt of course is probably not as high, but any agro is bad agro.
Build Up- I’m pretty sure just about everyone knows Build Up is a must have, just get it and slot it for 3 recharge reductions, sometimes you can use this as many as 3 times in one fight. Best combined with Aim, can make for some one or two hit KOs, Bitter Ice Blast combined with Ice Bolt, and Ice Sword combined with Ice Blast, there goes half a mob if you’re soloing.
Ice Patch- Yet another amazing power! This is absolutely necessary for any challenging soloing, grinding, running away, saving your melee teammates, building a barrier, all that great stuff. Give it just one recharge reduction, and you will have it up a good 3-5 seconds before the last one wears off. This can also make for a nice little gift once your tank has a herd in place and if his hp are dropping *fast*. Also it can get rid of that nasty MoG Paragon Protectors use, but you have to make sure you put it down before they start flying or go invincible; it will keep them from turning it on as they slip around like a bunch of idiots.
Shiver- Yuck. When I picked this up I was spending a lot of time on teams that were fighting things higher than purples to me, and I figured I could be of some use by a nice large cone debuff. The cone is definitely large, probably just smaller than Gale of the Storm Summoning set, but it almost never hits and is not even noticeable when it does. You will just see a nice little cloud of “Miss!” coming up on every single villain in the fight.
Freezing Touch- Eeh. It’s another melee power, and by now you don’t need any extra holds or anything. If you have this, Freeze Ray, and Bitter Freeze Ray, your teammates will just blink and wonder why that red thing is next to their controller’s name. Might be nice for soloing, I haven’t tried it yet. Most everything you fight is already slowed or falling and Freeze Ray can pretty much take care of the other ones.
Frozen Aura- AoE fake hold =P This is simply not good enough to be a final power… Any time you are on a team, your teammates will rip them all out of their hold within a few seconds. If you are solo and there are enough enemies for you to want an AoE hold, then you will probably want Ice Patch down, which will just break them out of it as well. Seems like a skip, I can’t even recommend slots for it seeing as they just break out as soon as you touch them anyways.
At some point, namely level 41, you get an epic set. Whee.
Cold Mastery obviously fits. However, it’s just an armor, a snow storm, another Frozen Aura, and Hibernate which is of course interesting, but not until way up at level 47!
Electric/Fire Mastery don’t quite match, but if that’s what you’re interested in go for it.
Munitions Mastery has an enticing little snipe thrown in (LRM rocket) but you are gonna look really odd if you lay down an Ice Patch or freeze someone in their tracks with their bare hands, and then out of nowhere you pull a rocket launcher to snipe with. I’m very vain about this…
Personally I picked Force Mastery. It’s centered around defense, every blasters dream. You don’t need more attacks, and instead of Hibernate at 47, you get Personal Force Field at level 41. This is especially nice for when you are above Founders Falls, but can get killed walking a few yards in Peregrine Island. The bad thing is I usually forgot to turn this off inside mission, leading to a few frantic seconds of “OMG! Why isn’t Blizzard working?! So yeah, watch out for that. Personal Force Field is followed by a smashing/lethal shield, and eventually Force Of Nature. Like Unstoppable for those Invulnerability tanks, except you can at the same time destroy everything around you in run-in-like-an-idiot-but-don’t-die-like-the-other-squishies fashion!
Power Pools- Obviously, as endurance blackholes, no matter what blaster you are you will want Stamina. Don’t argue it… just go with the widespread-fitness-flow =P
Leadership- Like debuffing your own end. Boosts are too small.
Flight- Typical blaster, Hover and hang back, but group fly is useless and fly is slow til the higher levels.
Leaping- Combat jumping has a hoverlike defense boost, slot it if you have free ones, super jumping makes ‘Boomtown’ the most fun level in the game, and Acrobatics defends against holds and knockback, just try not to get stunned/disoriented because it will drop and you will be held (Carnies…. Meh)
Concealment- Not necessary, most trollers or defenders have AoE stealths anyways.
Fighting- Melee attacks and a toggle, not as good as Acrobatics.
Medicine- Pop Personal Force Field and Aid Self for as much as 500 health. Also gives you an excuse to make the healer rez you first after a team wipe, because you can help Resuscitate teammates
Presence- Why on Squornshellous Zeta would a blaster want taunts?
Teleportation- People love you for Recall Friend, teleport Foe can be a fake snipe. Teleport self… will crash your computer if it’s as bad as mine is/was/probably-still-will-be-after-I-get-a-new- CPU.
Speed-Hasten is a favorite, Super Speed with Super Jump makes you the fastest person in game. Whirlwind is cool looking but probably useless.
So I can’t think of anything else to go on about. Comments are welcome as this is my first guide (though I have 4-5 CoHless days to write more >_>).
Snow-Streak, level 41 ice/ice/force mastery mutation blaster on Champion server (though obviously not anywhere for the next few days).
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