Leveling an ice/ice blaster

[Doc_Scorpion]

Leveling an ice/ice blaster, and even at lvl 9 I'm finding she's pretty fun to play.  (Those controls are sweet when solo.)  Anyhow, what are the key powers in the sets?  What should I avoid, what should I be sure and not miss taking?  What are the combos/tactics available?

Generally, I'm a hoverblaster...  Blapping is only for emergencies or finishers.

[Troo]

I know this much.  Ice = fast fast fun.

Skipped Frost Breath and Bitter freeze ray mostly due to animation times.

Aim + Build Up + Guas chance for + Blizzard is omg

 

Lots of options / proc potential when you start dialing it in.

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Troo
usual, spellz & clarification

[Doc_Scorpion]

2 hours ago, Troo said:

Skipped Frost Breath and Bitter freeze ray mostly due to animation times.

I was looking at that today...  how animation time affected the damage bonus.  It's dominated by recharge at the moment, but that will change.  (I skipped Frost Breath for concept reasons.)

[Doc_Scorpion]

Quick question...  Looking at Ice Storm, is that the equivalent of Rain of Fire?  The latter never struck me as all that useful, and thus the former is potentially skippable.

Also, Frigid Protection is....  Whoah!  Very useful.  (As in "how has this not been nerfed?" levels of useful.)

 

Edited November 19, 2019 by Doc_Scorpion

[Troo]

Ice Storm is definitely equivalent to Rain of Fire. (Ice Storm has a little -rech while Rain of Fire does a smidge more damage)

 

As an attack.. meh. Especially once recharge is high enough for better options more often.

 

I actually use them more as shields than attacks. This may sound strange, but I place the center on my side of a big mob rather than trying for the middle to hit as many as possible. The result is they don't run at me. If they do, they stop and run away and are limited to ranged attacks for a bit. Especially big groups that exceed an aggro cap.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Troo
clarification

[Doc_Scorpion]

8 hours ago, Troo said:

I actually use them more as shields than attacks. This may sound strange, but I place the center on my side of a big mob rather than trying for the middle to hit as many as possible. The result is they don't run at me but away and are limited to ranged attacks for a bit.

Huh, TIL...  Never occurred to me to do that, mostly because my f/f blaster almost exclusively teams and scattering enemies is rarely welcome.  Might be handy for Belle, who is running solo much of the time. 

Ended up snagging Assault instead, with the stacked +DMG from her attacks it seemed to me that starting further up the curve might be handy.  With Assault, I've managed to touch 40-50% +DMG a couple of times, and that's with DO level recharge.  I suspect she's gonna be a monster in that respect once I get to SO's.

[Sovera]

On 11/19/2019 at 12:54 AM, Doc_Scorpion said:

 (I skipped Frost Breath for concept reasons.)

Remember you can swap the animation from breath to a palm attack.

[Doc_Scorpion]

9 hours ago, Sovera said:

Remember you can swap the animation from breath to a palm attack.

I didn't know that!  Thanks!

[Wompy]

As far as /ice goes I skip the 2 melee single target attacks and frozen aura.  Shiver and freezing touch are optional, the rest I would take.

[Doc_Scorpion]

10 hours ago, Wompy said:

As far as /ice goes I skip the 2 melee single target attacks and frozen aura.  Shiver and freezing touch are optional, the rest I would take.

I took Frozen Fists to pair with Air Superiority since I have flying as a travel power.  (And I frequently hoverblast, so I get a one-two punch with nice damage and a chance of knocking them to the ground.)  The sword, yeah, eminently skippable.

[Outrider_01]

Quote

Ice Storm is definitely equivalent to Rain of Fire. (Ice Storm has a little -rech while Rain of Fire does a smidge more damage)

Not blaster related but Ice Storm and Rain of Fire on a corrupter....Equal awesome if you go with /Dark as a secondary.  Drop Tar Patch slotted with recharge (maybe slow if you want), drop Ice Storm or Fire rain and watch them slowly run out while Scourge goes off a lot; those little ticks start to add up.  Ice with the extra bit of slow means they run slower (if you want slow other wise just AoE damage and recharge) while Fire wins out hands down -> Tar Patch -> Rain of Fire -> Fire Ball - Scourge remaining stuff to death.  And Both Tar Patch with the rains can be cast behind cover since they are target AoE based.

[Troo]

@Outrider_01 fyi Ice it would be ' hands down' -> Tar Patch -> Ice Storm -> Blizzard from range. (double rain)

Edited November 26, 2019 by Troo

[Ukase]

A little late to this discussion, but according to the npc I asked, I have already played my ice/ice blaster for 1500 hours. (that does include a lot of time farming damage - dished out, and taken) In live, I played more than one ice/ice blaster to level 50 and easily logged over 2000 hours with each one. (server transfers weren't a regular thing back then until the free to play concept with the vip server, if memory serves) 

I had read @olepi 's ice/ice guide and was immediately sold by his/her passion about the power sets. 
Briefly - Bitter Ice blast is a must have, and I also believe Freeze Ray is the defining power of the set. You don't "have" to get it, of course, but I highly recommend it. 

Blizzard is, of course, a must have. I like to use it before Judgement, or after. And I like to use Ice Storm on top of it to help clear the lts and bosses. 

On the secondary, I used to rely a lot on ice patch. Now, not so much. Very handy in the lower levels, but if properly motivated to do a respec, I might do without it to grab an extra slot (I have it two-slotted now, with recharge IOs), and maybe ice fists or tp ally or something else. Because I don't know what else I'd get, I'll just keep ice patch for now. 

 

Frigid Protection....I swear, I don't remember this power in live. I've no idea how I got to 50 without it. I recently respec'd after learning about it and I cannot endorse it highly enough. I would pick this power over every other one in either the primary or secondary. If you don't get it, you're just being foolish. 
The negative on it is that if you're stealthed, it breaks it. Mobs feel the chill, I guess, and see you. 

Ice sword is a nice finisher. I only two slotted mine with two hami-os (acc/dam). I would like to six slot it, but no idea where I could get the slots from. 
It's the most fun character to play in my "stable", with my fire/fire being a close second.