I need Ice control suggestions and combos.

[ZeeHero]

I need suggestions on controller builds using ice control. as much info as you can give me if you can.

[ozob]

Hey Zee... in all fairness... don't.

Right now it's a very disappointing set.

However, if you are dead set on it... 
1) The cone is terrible since everything will be at the slow cap anyway.  Skip it.
2) The AOE confuse is good but will get you face planted a lot.
3) Ice slick is nice, depending on what secondary you might have better options.
4) Pet is meh, but you need it because you can't do much damage.

Storm pairs well with it.  Maybe poison on a proc build?

[Coyote]

I think that Ice Control works well but only when paired with secondary sets that have -ToHit in the set. The reason is that if you go, for example, Ice/Rad...

1: the mobs are rarely attacking due to -Recharge and falling down

2: half the attacks for LTs and minions are going at their own side

3: when they do attack your team, they face hefty ToHit debuffs

4: if they do hit, they are doing less damage than normal

5: you have an AoE heal to fix the little damage that comes through 1-4

 

Now, in NONE of those abilities, does it say that mobs are mezzed and don't attack. Ice Controllers play the opposite of most Controllers... instead of City of Statues, they like City of Really Weak and Slowly Moving Bad Guys. They let everyone attack all the time... but at hefty debuffs. So if you go away from the mindset of "shut them down" and switch to "let them attack but very weakly", they do fine.

 

But if you're not using a secondary that weakens incoming damage to stack with the -Recharge and Knockdown, then the incoming damage could be pretty high. Storm and Poison help with damage, but unless you're at Incarnate levels where mitigating damage is not useful (and in that case, why plan for an Ice Controller to play there when other ATs are far better), you need Defense more than damage.

 

I would suggest Ice/Rad, Ice/Dark, Ice/Time, and Ice/Plant. Maybe Ice/Traps.

[Sailboat]

Currently experimenting with Ice/Time.

 

Arctic Air has the same PBAoE radius as Time's Juncture.  Together they cost a bucket of endurance to run, but they slow everything to the slow cap, confuse a lot of foes, apply significant -to hit, and reduce damage.  More importantly, Arctic Air has a flee effect -- combined with the confuses, enemies spend a LOT of time running back and forth...veeery slowly...while your team pounds on them.

 

Ice Slick means you can mitigate the alpha and get into the mass of enemies long enough for the confuse to kick in.

 

Note that a minor complaint about confuses is that you get "less xp" because the foes damage each other (disclaimer:  I know that clear speed improves enough to more than offset this, and confuses are good).  But Time's Juncture makes them miss a lot and do less damage when they hit.  Net effect is they are "mezzed" and ineffective at hurting you and your team for the same amount of time as a normal confuse would cause, but they are worth slightly more exp since they're killing each other much more slowly.

 

It's been working well since around level 8, although the end cost is prohibitive until SOs/IOs.  I needed a team to actually do the killing.  as foes get more dangerous, I think I will take a little bit of stealth (maybe just an IO) for additional safety as I approach spawns to snare them in my dual auras.

[SeraphimKensai]

Ice/dark?

[swordchucks]

On 9/21/2019 at 11:21 PM, ozob said:

Hey Zee... in all fairness... don't.

I have a level 50 ice/storm and I'd agree with this assessment.  Ice is currently not in a great place.

 

If you must, ice/storm isn't a bad combo.  /storm has a lot of damage that you're otherwise lacking. 

 

On 9/21/2019 at 11:21 PM, ozob said:

3) Ice slick is nice, depending on what secondary you might have better options.

Ice Slick is probably the best power in the set.  Unfortunately, Fire's Bonfire with a KB>KD IO in it is a better version of Ice Slick on a shorter cooldown.  Freezing Rain also feels like a better version of Ice Slick in a lot of ways (though it knocks down less).

[oedipus_tex]

Ice Control is a very low damage set that is fun but not particularly strong. It's core control powers are Arctic Air and Ice Slick, which are nice, but in the current iteration of the game suffer some set backs.

 

Arctic Air tends to get detoggled easily by enemies with mezz. So, a significant part of your strategy will be to try obtain mezz protection. Luckily for Controllers this can be done in the tertiary sets.

 

Ice/Traps is a potentially useful combo because it provides protection to most mezzes, and some control openers that Ice lacks. 

 

Ice/Storm is fun but very endurance heavy.

 

-Recharge isn't entirely useless as a secondary effect, but it's not something to rely on.

 

FWIW I consider Ice a generally better primary for Dominators than Controllers. The same issues with lacking control exist there, but at least the low damage isn't a hinderance.

[Dr Causality]

What are you hoping to get from choosing Ice Control?    Do you have a character theme or playstyle in mind?   

 

The defining power is Arctic Air.   Sadly, if you consider the amount of control, compared to the amount of aggro generated, then Arctic Air performs far below powers like Plant's 'Seeds of Confusion'.   A short coming of the set is that Ice does not offer tools to deal with hard targets like AVs.   That limitation is compounded by Artic Air being an always on pbaoe toggle, causing you to draw aggro from hard targets that Arctic Air couldn't mezz.    For this reason on a Controller I'd try to pair Ice with a 2ndary that gave you tools to  deal with tough targets.   (Avoid sets like Empath, Pain, Forcefield etc.)   

 

The most success I've had with Ice Control was playing on a team with another Ice Control character.   Stacking 2 x Arctic Air makes all the difference since it Confuses everything Boss level and below.      

 

If I was going to play without a 2nd Ice Control character I'd probably build an Ice Control Dominator instead of Controller.  Then I'd build the Dominator as a sort of Blapper that that focuses on attacks.  I'd probably combine with Martial Assault for all the aoe attacks, then add in Ice Mastery Epic for -Res Debuff in Sleet, HoarFrost Heal, Frozen Armor etc..   I had one of those on Justin and it did well.    But then I tried a Fire Control version with Bonfire slotted for KB -> KD....and it was tough to think about the Ice Control build again.   Bonfire with the KD proc is so good it probably should be nerfed.