Build help: Fire/Ice

[Bokken]

Hi guys.

 

I know there are a lot of you out there who are a lot better than I at build-fu.

 

I had an idea of synergy between fires aoe focus and ices ice patch. Am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

So far my guy is level 10. Thank God for dfb.

 

Anyways, I saw that there have been no requests for or any info about this combo here on the forums.

 

Would any one of you please help me prove the viability of this combo? Or is this a dud combo?

 

[Redshadows]

Well, I main as a Fire/Ice, but I don't really play many other tanker types. I'm also not the best, so please take my words with a grain of salt.

 

You're not going in the wrong direction, since Fire/Ice used to be a very popular build a long time ago. Ice Patch + Burn has decent throughput of baddies for a tanker set.

 

First long text is basically just explanation on how I see Fire/Ice. After that, is how I slot my powers. Didn't expect to type so much, so sorry about that.

 

TL;DR

slot for global recharge.

 

Fire/Ice

 

Fire is a pretty offensive set, with Healing Flames, Consume, Burn, Fiery Embrace, and Rise to keep you in the fight. I really like Fire because of this offensiveness, since it burns through enemies quickly with a great team. Just got to be a little careful not to go too fast and reach aggro cap. Temperature Protection is a great power, because you can slot a +Kb protection in it, as well as resist a lot of slow effects. Slot in a Winter's Gift IO for even more slow resist, and it's pretty great at fighting enemies who want to slow you down. Consume is great too, since it not only gives you more endurance when you're running low, but it gives you end drain resistance, which some other sets don't have. If you know what a Sapper is, Consume is great at countering them, but you're going to want to throw a Freezing Touch their way to stop their nonsense.

 

Fire Armor is very weak to Psionic, as is some of the other sets. It can mitigate that somewhat with Healing Flames, but it's best to not take too much time to get rid of the Psychic baddies. Energy and Negative can be problems, but it's better than Psychic. Toxic isn't a problem, depending on your build. Slot enough global recharge and you can 3 stack Healing Flames to reach resistance cap on Toxic.

 

Ice Melee is a little defensive with the slows, hold in Freezing Touch, and Ice Patch to keep the baddies falling on their backs. It's got some great AoE with Frost and Frozen Aura, although some people don't like Frozen Aura because reasons? One of the things before the shutdown happened was fix a big glitch in Frozen Fists. It used to do half the damage it does now, so it can do a lot at lower levels.

 

Ice Melee is not a very offensive set. It does have great AoE, and Freezing Touch is probably one of the strongest single target damage dealing powers a tanker can have, but only if you slot it for damage. You can slot it for holds, to have more control, but you generally don't want things to live too long since it goes against Fire's focus.

 

Both of them together is pretty decent. You can play it in many different ways.

 

There's the cautious way, where you put down an Ice Patch first and then pull baddies into it. That's probably one of the safest ways to play, and at early levels, you can kill +2 up to +4 depending on your team.

 

There's the aggressive way, where you jump directly into a group and put the Ice Patch down on them. It's quicker, but the alpha strike(the burst enemies do when aggroed) can kill you if you're slacking with the Healing Flames. This is one of my preferred ways, since it's more fun. It's best to do this with a kin on the team so you can get the Fulcrum Shift before laying down that sweet Burn.

 

There's a crazier way where you say "f it all" and jump into multiple groups. I usually play like this because it's fun and Fire is usually good at it. Jump into a group, lay down an Ice Patch, wait for team to come and kill a few off, then jump into a different group and pull them to the kill zone. Use Healing Flames to stay alive, and when everything goes to shit, just use Rise to get back up. It's definitely not the safest way to play, but it's Fire's way to play most of the time. Well, the Fire I know anyway, which might be some sort of convoluted and stupid way to play, but I like it.

 

Slotting Fire/Ice

 

I never take the sword abilities, but that might be something you want. You can usually 4 slot them with Kinetic Combat for a good defense bonus.

 

I always slot for recharge. IO sets with recharge is the #1 thing for my build. You've got a targeted AoE (Frost), and a ton of PBAoEs. If you want, 5 slot Frozen Aura with the Sleep Purple set, but I usually put Oblits in most PBAoEs except Burn, which I put the purple set in.

 

Taking Tough and Weave is pretty necessary for this build, since Smashing/Lethal is one of the most common damage types, and Fire doesn't do super well against them alone. Weave is good for a LoTG +7.5 global recharge, and to build up defense, if you want to do so.

 

I usually use Super Jump, but you can do Super Speed if you'd like, since Combat Jumping is pretty good and Hasten is downright necessary. Fire has no inherent immob or kb protection, so Karma +KB protec and Combat Jumping is good defenses against this. Burn does have immob protection when you use it, so if you don't go down Combat Jumping, just set down a Burn.

 

Don't expect to be the tankiest thing alive, but it's pretty survivable. With a lot of recharge, you're able to put down at least 2 Ice Patches with Perma Burn, hold bosses with Freezing Touch, and stay alive with Healing Flames.