Guide to Controller Ice/Time while Leveling with Teams

[DougGraves]

Guide to Controller Ice/Time while Leveling with Teams

 

This guide covers the powers for an ice/time controller while leveling with teams. How to use them, how useful they are, and how to slot them. It completely ignores end game and IO sets. It also mostly ignores soloing as soloing with these sets is just too painful.

 

Why Ice/Time? Arctic Air and Time's Juncture are both pbaoe debuff toggles. With them both on, foes around you are confused, with -recharge, -dmg, and -to hit. So you have permanent control in a large circle around you. Ice Slick around corners let's you prevent an alpha. And Ice Slick and Time's Juncture do not require to hit, so they are reliable. Time Stop gives you a second single target hold with fast recharge. And Time Crawl gives you -regen to take on AVs and GMs.

 

Why not Ice/Time? It uses up a lot of END, locks you in place, and can therefore be boring. Because it uses so much END just to run AA and TS, you do not have a lot left to use your other powers. You need to slot for END in the powers you use. Also, you must stand in the middle of the foes. You cannot move over to heal an ally, etc. as if you move away from the foes your debuff goes away. You also have to get to the middle of your foes.

 

Overall: Ice/Time is great early. You have AA and TJ at level 6, giving you great constant control. At level 13 you have Ice Slick 3 slotted for recharge. It does not get better than that. Given that it is terrible at soloing and in a team you have to stand in the middle of your foes, it takes dedication to a certain play style to love this combination.

 

General Note: This recommends slotting one for accuracy. If you want to take on higher level foes than you, you will probably want to slot a second accuracy in your powers. This generally will not be a problem while leveling unless you sidekick up to level 50 teams.

 

Ice Control

 

Chillblain is a single target immobilize and DoT. It is one of your highest damage powers, so you need this for damage, but I rarely use this on a team unless it is full of controllers and lacks damage. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 1 end reduction - add 1 recharge reduction if you solo.

 

Block of Ice is a single target hold and damage. As one of your two high damage powers you should slot this for damage, accuracy, and END. As you will have a second hold and END is an issue, slot for hold not recharge if you want more control. I use this every time it is up, targeting a lieutenant if possible to hold the highest value target I can. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 1 END reduction, 1 hold.

 

Frostbite is a AoE immobilize with minor damage. Against a group of foes it will do more damage than Electric Fence and will set up containment if you get an AoE damage power from somewhere. I skip this power, if I were soloing I would take it. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage.

 

Arctic Air is a pbaoe toggle. It gives foes -Recharge and -SPD and will Confuse them if it hits. It costs over 1 END per second so you need a lot END reduction. I keep this up constantly unless I am waiting and recovering END. Slot 2 END reduction (3 if you can afford it but you don't get much out of the 3rd).

 

Shiver is a wide cone which gives foes -Recharge and -SPD. It has a recharge of 30 seconds so it is up a lot. I do not use it because it uses a lot of END I cannot afford and while theoretically powerful you cannot see the effect since you have so much other -Recharge. Slot 1 accuracy, 1 END reduction, 1 recharge.

 

Ice Slick is the best power in the set. It is a ground targeted aoe that creates a long duration ice patch which causes foes to be knocked down repeatedly and they have -SPD. It can be targeted around corners, so you can use this to prevent your foes from getting off an alpha. I use this at the start of almost every fight. Flying creatures such as CoT spirits and multi-legged creatures such as Arachnos bots are immune to knockdown so this power is somewhat situational. Slot 3 recharge, 1 range.

 

Flash Freeze is a targeted AoE sleep. It does a tiny bit of damage up front so it will not stack with other sleeps used before it, but the damage is too small to be meaningful otherwise. This is only useful as a panic button and most teams will wake up the sleepers immediately, so it is skippable. Slot 1 accuracy.

 

Glacier is a pbaoe hold. It also gives -Recharge and -SPD in case they are not held. This is a great panic button since you need to be in the middle of your foes anyway. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge, 2 hold.

 

Jack Frost is a pet that does some damage, which is better than nothing. It may also hold a foe. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage.

 

Time Manipulation

 

Time Crawl is a single target debuff to recharge and regen. A target with this on gets slightly more debuff from Time's Juncture. A target with this gets +1 magnitude on the hold from Time Stop. So use this on bosses and then hold them. Or use on AVs and GMs for the -regen. Slot 1 accuracy.

 

Temporal Mending is a pbaoe heal with additional healing for 6 seconds. Slot for healing not recharge to keep your END cost down. It is problematic to use because you want to stand in the middle of your foes but to heal you have to be next to your ally – so let your allies know to stand beside you. Slot 3 healing.

 

Time's Juncture is a pbaoe toggle. It gives foes -Dmg, -To Hit, and -SPD. Only the -To Hit is enhanceable. It costs over .5 END per second so you need END reduction. I keep this up constantly unless I am waiting and recovering END. Slot 1 accuracy, 2 END reduction, 3 To Hit debuffs.

 

Temporal Selection is a single ally buff that lasts for 2 minutes and has a recharge of 2 minutes. With enough recharge you can alternate between 2 allies. It gives +dmg, +recharge, and +regen. It is best used on a damage dealer such as blaster, scrapper, or brute. Slot 3 recharge.

 

Distortion Field is a ground targeted aoe that leaves a field for 45s that debuffs -recharge and -spd. Foes have a 20% chance of a mag 3 hold. This also can be dropped around corners. Use this if ice slick is not up at the start of a fight or for foes that are immune to ice slick. You can save this for long lasting fights or to take on adds. Slot 3 recharge.

 

Time Stop is a singe target hold with no damage. It can hold a boss if the boss has Time Crawl on it. So use Time Crawl on a boss, if you hit use Time Stop to hold them. If TC misses, use TS and Block of Ice to hold the boss. Slot 1 accuracy, 1 end reduction, 3 hold.

 

Farsight is a pbaoe buff to you and your allies. It is a slight To Hit buff but a significant defense buff and perception buff. It has a 4 min recharge and 120s duration so you can make it perma. This is your only constant team buff and you should have it up all of the time. Slot 3 recharge.

 

Slowed Response is a targeted AoE that gives foes -Def and -Res. This is how you contribute damage to a team. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge.

 

Chrono Shift is a pbaoe heal and +recovery for you and your allies. It has a 6 minute recharge and lasts only 30s, so this is a panic button not a regular use feature. You can slot it for healing or END mod. Slot 3 recharge, 3 heal/END mod.

 

Edit: Added END reduction to chillblain and time stop, removed 1 end reduction from Arctic Air for better END management.

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by DougGraves
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[Parasite]

This is a great guide to the Ice/Time controller. Thank you.

 

Do you have an IO build available?

[oedipus_tex]

Great guide.

 

One thing I think you should mention is mezz protection. Namely, the fact that Ice/Time doesn't have it without dipping into the Psi APP or at incarnate levels. Unfortunately this mostly wrecks a PBAoE strategy from levels 35 to whenever you pick up your protection.

 

BTW I recommend this macro:

 

/MACRO DF powexeclocation self "Distortion Field"

 

This will place DF directly on top of you. It has a 25 foot radius and lines up exactly with the edges of Arctic Air (until you move). Combined it provides:

• -62.5 recharge (Distortion Field) + -62.5 Recharge (Arctic Air) = -125% Recharge.
  • Against +4 enemies:
    • 125% * .48 = 60% - impressive

 

Note the cap for -Recharge is -75%. AA + DF far exceeds this on same level enemies (auto hit!) Against +4s you're about 15 points from capping it. Casting Frostbite adds -12.5% to +4s for 10 seconds (the base value is 25%), so anything inside the radius has its Recharge very close to tanked as long as you are willing to spam Frostbite every 10 seconds or so. Any other sources of -Recharge (e.g. Jack's aura) will cap it.

Edited January 1, 2020 by oedipus_tex

[Vulpoid]

Thank you so much for this!
I am not even interested in the Ice/Time Controller part.  I like the style of post.
I wish more guides were written this way, basic slotting as you level, as you team.
The old forums were filled with that style and I miss it very much.
I want to know about the LIFE, the ride, the adventure, not the retirement package of a character.