Build Request: Ice Armor/Martial Arts/Energy

[Quietdraco80]

Hi! So, I'm a casual player getting back into the game. I keep making mistakes, though, and wanted to see if anyone could help me out by showing how to build Ice Armor, Martial Arts, and Energy together. The guy I'm running is a Magic Tanker off of Everlasting.

[Caulderone]

There are a couple recent Ice/ threads to check out.

 

 

 

The second one links to another post that has a ton of info on /MA.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Caulderone

[Quietdraco80]

38 minutes ago, Caulderone said:

There are a couple recent Ice/ threads to check out.

 

 

 

The second one links to another post that has a ton of info on /MA.

I actually posted the second. It's why there's a "Build Request" on this one explicitly. Because I'm not that good at building in the game as of yet, and wanted to ask for help on it. Thanks for pointing me back at my own thread, though!

[Caulderone]

Hah!  Not sure how I missed that.

 

The 3rd post in the other thread has a build by Hyperstrike in it.  That should get you started.

[Quietdraco80]

Again, helps a little. But I'm not sure how Ice is going to incorporate into it as well. I'm noticing some powers that I'd rather not slot if I can get away with it, for example, but want to take because of nice effects.

 

So, trying to figure out where to go from there.

 

Other thing, is one of the side combat movement powers required to far as most builds like Hover or Combat Jumping?

[Redlynne]

2 hours ago, Quietdraco80 said:

Other thing, is one of the side combat movement powers required to far as most builds like Hover or Combat Jumping?

I personally prefer Hover over Combat Jumping, if it's a choice between those two powers specifically.

 

Combat Jumping will give you access to a FEW more locations when in use, but there will still be places you can't jump to.

Hover gives you access to every point within the volume of a zone ... albeit "not quickly" ...

 

Combat Jumping can't get you out of a patch of Caltrops, since Caltrops disables Jumping (effectively).

Hover gets you out of a patch of Caltrops NO PROBLEM ... and in fact you can Hover "just above" the AoE of a patch of Caltrops and remain within melee range of your $Targets.

 

 

 

There are some other reasons on top of those two, but those are the Big Two™ reasons why I prefer Hover over Combat Jumping.

 

The real deciding factor for me was all the way back in Issues 2-3 when I first started playing and was planning on (and took) Combat Jumping at Level 6 at the same time that a PuG teammate also reached Level 6 and took Hover.  We'd been in The Hollows and had just leveled, so we both headed back into Atlas Park (there was no Foreshadow in The Hollows back in those days) to train with Ms Liberty in front of Atlas.

 

I took Combat Jumping.

My PuG teammate took Hover.

 

I toggled on Combat Jumping and "leaped" high enough to get onto the roof of a multistory building in a single bound.

My PuG teammate toggled on Hover and SLOWLY rose vertically up into the sky, without falling back down while I watched them ... and then they applied lateral movement and floated off over Atlas Park to wherever they were going (and quit team).  And watching this, the only thought running through my mind was ... "I CAN'T DO THAT..." followed by a surge of jealousy and envy at being able to "hang in the sky the way that bricks don't" like that.

 

Ever since then, I've ALWAYS preferred Hover over Combat Jumping.

ALWAYS.

[Hyperstrike]

56 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

I personally prefer Hover over Combat Jumping, if it's a choice between those two powers specifically.

 

Endurance fiend that I am, I'm the exact opposite.

Defense offered is virtually identical.
But CJ's endurance cost is roughly 1/3rd that of Hover.

Add to that, flight powers can interfere with attacks that REQUIRE you to be on the ground unless you've FIRMLY nailed yourself to minimum height...

Edited December 31, 2019 by Hyperstrike

[Redlynne]

True on both counts.  However, on the endurance front you're dealing with a "thrice nothing is still almost nothing" as far as endurance costs go.  With slotting an End/Fly set IO or HO you can bring the endurance cost of Hover down pretty low (like 0.15/s iirc) meaning that at best you're saving ... what ... 1 endurance every 10 seconds by choosing Combat Jumping?

 

As for powers that require ground contact in order to use ... I haven't played any of those powersets, so that was always a lesser consideration in my valuation of the two options for my characters.

[Quietdraco80]

I ended up going into Sorcery/Mystic Flight. I don't think it was this thread, but someone mentioned minimal FX and tweaking the FX to make it into a nice tech Flight. So far, I'm having fun with it there. That I know of, there's no ground required powers. Also, Rocket Boots and the Afterburner backpack look cool.

[Redlynne]

Mystic Flight is GREAT as a travel power which isn't TOO expensive to use while in combat (Fly is simply too expensive to keep toggled on while in combat).  The ability to teleport PAST choke points in order to get superior positioning can be invaluable in certain situations (I recently used teleport to get past everything guarding the entrance of an Orenbega Prison map module so as to pick stuff off from the INSIDE at the far end of the room, rather than needing to deal with the HORDE clustered up by the entrance hiding to the sides and below ready to swamp me).  Under most circumstances I wind up using the teleport feature of Mystic Flight as a combat distance teleport, rather than trying to rely on it as a way to speed up travel (although I do that too sometimes on longer trips).

[Caulderone]

9 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

Mystic Flight is GREAT as a travel power which isn't TOO expensive to use while in combat (Fly is simply too expensive to keep toggled on while in combat).

Check that in game and you'll find that both Flight and Mystic Flight have the exact same cost now, 0.46/sec.

Still, Mystic Flight is great with the added TP.

[Quietdraco80]

Wow! Thanks, guys! Didn't think about using that TP in a crawl there yet! I usually turn it off whenever I'm going through one since I solo at the moment.

[Redlynne]

47 minutes ago, Quietdraco80 said:

Wow! Thanks, guys! Didn't think about using that TP in a crawl there yet! I usually turn it off whenever I'm going through one since I solo at the moment.

The ability to use the Teleport in Mystic Flight to "skip past" ambush clusters at choke points on maps is something you have to experience first hand to be able to appreciate.  Being able to avoid the dogpile of over-aggro so as to take things on in more easily digestible bite sized chunks at your own pace is a really huge advantage and something that doesn't "yield" itself or make itself apparent to spreadsheet analysis ... but it's totally a quality of life bonus to Mystic Flight.