Blaster, Ice manipulation: Frozen Aura is bad

[Arachnos Morahtix]

Hello,

 

As a secondary's T9, it does the following:

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2.10s activation

20s base recharge

Magnitude [2] Sleep for 20+ seconds

PBAOE/Melee AOE, 10ft radius

10 targets maximum

5.50%+ damage for Blaster for 9.6s

In a set that has the T6 [Ice Patch], the latter of which is competing almost directly with [Frozen Aura]. [Ice Patch] is utterly insane in its practical use.

 

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3.45 activation

35s base recharge

8% chance for mag 0.5 knock DOWN on target

-90% run speed

-50000% jump height

-3.26 max run speed

+22.90% damage for Blaster for 10.97s (!!!)

 

 

That 8% chance for knockdown is deceptive; the ability's tick rate is so fast that anything that doesn't have high slow resistance (i.e, War Wolves) just gets *stuck* on the [Ice Patch] for the duration. No accuracy checks of any kind, if it touches the patch it gets the knock down check. No target maximum limit. Now throw in some recharge/global recharge and you have an effective on-demand 23%~ damage buff (a free Enrage) as well.

 

So in its *own set* [Frozen Aura] is already shown up, out classed, and regulated to set mule territory in an instant by its T6 power. Even that is kind of sketchy due to the set bonuses of sleep-based sets. Its only theoretical saving grace is its faster activation time ... on a mag 2 sleep, that needs accuracy checks and can be resisted by dangerous enemies like lieutenants and bosses with some regularity. In utter honesty, I cannot imagine any reason for it to exist except as a set mule, not even blappers will want this compared to just using [Ice Patch].

 

I'd put a vote forward on redesigning the ability or basically buffing its gimmick into a usable state. A "Sleep inducing Foot Stomp" is pretty weird to me, but if it had a much larger radius and a higher magnitude on the sleep, you could start making an argument for it. It would essentially turn into a blaster option to protect themselves from more enemies better at greater dispersion--which would differ it from [Ice Patch] fairly meaningfully at that point. Beyond that, as far as making the ability do something else, I have no idea. Turning it into an aura makes it rather weird and start stepping on [Frigid Protection]'s territory.

 

[Build Up], [Frigid Protection], [Ice Patch], along with [Shiver] are already doing so much for your every day blaster. The blapper options are what they are and so exist in a pretty alright state. As a whole, Ice Manipulation is doing great outside of its T9 being a hilarious trainwreck of a power. I guess that was the sacrifice made to justify the rest of Ice Manipulation's strong showing? I could understand it not getting any help in that light, but still, when one looks across the isle to other T9s and their strong (if niche) usefulness, it's definitely a sore outlier.

 

Anyway, that's how it reads out to me.

Thank you for reading.