How are you guys proc'ing out Freeze ray and bitter freeze ray?

[Neogumbercules]

I've been thinking about making an Ice Blast blaster (or resurrecting one I have mothballed) and I'm curious about these two powers for proc options. Ideally I'd like to slot the chance for hold procs in them but I can't get on mids right now to check if they take Hold sets. Besides that I'm guessing damage and... What else? 

[SuperPlyx]

I really tried to use Bitter Freeze Ray but just couldn't get over the long cast time. That said it does do procs good. And you could 6 slot just with damage procs if you wanted too, there is that many available.

Yes both powers will take Hold sets, Bitter will also take Slows.

As far as non-damage procs go I like Decimation Chance for Build-Up and Entomb Chance for Absorb. 

[Chelsea Rorec]

BFR i use as an opener as it can 1 shot most stuff when loaded for damage.

Typically i load with Thunderstrike for the sweet bonuses.

[nebber]

Damage procs you can slot:

 

Ranged dmg:

 Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative) *
 Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic)
 

Holds:

Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
 Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
 Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage *
 Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

 

Blaster ATO:

Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage **

 

Slow (Bitter Freeze Ray only - Freeze Ray doesn't accept slow sets)

Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing)

Ice Minstral's Torment - Chance for Cold Damage

 

* The purples are higher activation / chance - 107 dmg, 63% chance with no recharge slotted vs 72 dmg, 64% chance for the standard procs)

** This one has recharge in it and that drops chance of all procs in the power, but it balances out by having a higher damage and fire rate. 

 

I only use freeze ray and have one +5 thunderstrike A/D/E, apocalpyse, and the four hold ones.  You can do six procs for more damage if you have good global acc bonuses, decent to-hit, and no endurance problems.  I don't, thus the thunderstrike.

 

[nebber]

Oh, I just re-read your message, and you're asking about possible procs to use aside from damage.  The damage proc approach makes freeze ray a very very strong ST attack, but I suppose there are utility options too...

 

Devistation: chance for hold / Lockdown: chance for +2 mag hold:  if you add these two you have a better chance of one-shot-holding a boss.

Superior Entomb: chance of absorb / Entropic Chaos: chance of heal self - Perhaps these two might make the attack into a mini-heal like dark blast's life drain or water blast's dehydrate.

 

I've only ever tried the damage proc option myself so can't say how effective the above would be, you can always try it out on the test server.   Though I kinda now want to try taking Bitter Freeze Ray with the above 4 procs along with an acc/hold and a hold.  Then it could be a button for "uh oh - I'd better hold that boss" or "uh-oh, I need a heal".... then I can keep Freeze Ray as the damage-proc-attack.

 

There other procs options barely worth mentioning:

Tempest: chance of end drain - useless

Winter's Bite:  Chance of neg speed & recharge - your ice attacks are doing plenty of this.

Pacing of the turtle: chance of neg recharge - as above

[aethereal]

Note that Freeze Ray is such a good damage power that a normal damage proc is really no better than a SO damage enhancement in terms of total expected damage to add (assuming no local recharge).  A proc does all its damage up front instead of DoT, which is good, but is unreliable, which is less good.

 

Once you're hitting ED, of course, procs can effectively add damage when normal enhancement can't.  And purple procs are effectively better than a damage enhancement.  But I wouldn't six-proc Freeze Ray, personally -- it's one of the rare powers where you can get better damage enhancement by not six-proccing.  (On blasters.  Other blast-set users will find it better to proc with their lower damage scalars).

Edited February 19, 2022 by aethereal

[Neogumbercules]

Thanks guys. There's a million different options here. I kinda want to take both fr and bfr and just ruin bosses. I'm currently doing a home reno in the room where my computer should be so it's all just in my head at the moment. I was thinking ice/dev or ice/time. Might take /time since the free global recharge might make up for some missing recharge enhancement. 

[Tahliah]

I took a slightly different approach than those mentioned above.  Because freeze ray already does great damage (itself, plus all the other damage bonuses from sets/incarnate), I slotted 3 Unbreakable Constraint, including the proc.  Bitter freeze ray, as mentioned, has a slow cast time, so it's best for your opening salvo (particularly against baddies with any kind of untouchable power: PPs, fake nems, carnie master ills, etc.--hold them with bitter then add a freeze ray to keep it held until you can kill it).  I have only two-slotted bitter, with a hold set (I think, can't remember off-hand), but I was looking for resist/defense in slotting, so that is what I would be slotting for here.   So whatever hold set I used will have acc and hold in some combination.  You definitely don't want your bitter to miss.

 

Keep in mind that what is in an individual power is great, but it's the overall build that is going to make a difference for your rays.  Slot up for acc/dam/recharge, and you can then get def/res with set bonuses/procs.  At least that's my philosophy on ice blast, YMMV.

[Frozen Burn]

For me (Ice/Fire/Fire), no procs.  Holds only.  Both powers already do decent base damage.  With the lower duration of holding blasters now have, it's more essential (to me) to have hold duration for the damage mitigation.  With Freeze Ray, Bitter Freeze Ray, and Char - I can perma hold 2 bosses or an EB and destroy them without them touching me (or my teammates).  Hold duration will increase your survivability - it's 100% mitigation vs. the 5% defense rule.  And as @Tahliah mentioned, it's very useful for stopping those MoG'ing PPs, Fake Nem bubbles, and other pesky bosses / EBs from doing things that only just draws out the fight.  ...my .02 inf.  🙂    

[Nightmarer 2]

I've always avoided Bitter Freeze Ray because, well, it sucks. Freeze Ray I slot 5 procs and one purple Acc/Dmg/Rchg boosted +5

[Onlyasandwich]

Also not a huge BFR fan, but can appreciate why some folks might want back to back hold stacking. With high enough global recharge, FR itself comes back quickly enough for my purposes in stacking.

 

As for FR, I typically do a combo of baseline enhancement + damage procs.

• Superior Winter's Bite Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End
• Purple hold proc, ghost widow and Neuronic proc, Javelin proc.

 

I typically leave the Apoc proc for my 5 slot Apoc elsewhere. This goes in Bitter Ice blast for me.

 

Along with Intuition radial Alpha, this gives me solid damage enhancement, solid acc, and great extra fun from procs. This alpha is also great for the added hold enhancement and range!

 

Alternatively, an Acc/Dam HO +3 and the Apoc Damage IO +5 will max out your ED and give okay acc for two slots, leaving the other 4 for whatever procs you like. This is more viable if you have higher global acc/tohit sources. Typically the straight Damage Apoc IO is the one I skip in my 5 slot Apoc elsewhere, so it doesn't get in the way of 5 slot for that set.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Onlyasandwich

[kelika2]

I dont even take Bitter anymore and regular Freeze Ray is solid enough damage to not proc out

[Tahliah]

On 2/23/2022 at 8:12 AM, Nightmarer said:

I've always avoided Bitter Freeze Ray because, well, it sucks. Freeze Ray I slot 5 procs and one purple Acc/Dmg/Rchg boosted +5

 

Bitter doesn't suck; it's just not a power you can effectively include in your basic attack chain or hope to use helpfully on teams.  It is, however, hugely helpful if you are soloing/badging and need to hold pesky critters who go untouchable on you, and it's great as an opener when you spot a sapper (as a blaster, I hate sappers more than anything else in the game).  The thing with the Bitter power is that its slow cast time sends it to the bottom of choices, but it will hold a boss (and also do damage, of course), when your FR won't (it will do damage but not actually hold bosses, and is kind of hit or miss on Lieuts).

 

I think that if I didn't solo so much (my main is ice/ice/ice and also my badger), I probably would skip Bitter.  Not because it sucks (it doesn't), but because it's not super helpful on teams that are just steamrolling content. 

[Tahliah]

On 2/23/2022 at 10:19 AM, Onlyasandwich said:

I typically leave the Apoc proc for my 5 slot Apoc elsewhere. This goes in Bitter Ice blast for me.

 

I have Apoc in Ice Blast and Superior Blaster's Wrath in Bitter Ice Blast.  I wonder if I should switch this out. 

 

I haven't gotten around to using mids this time around, but I may get back into it.  Things like this make me rethink my slotting, so thanks!  🙂

 

 

[Onlyasandwich]

50 minutes ago, Tahliah said:

I have Apoc in Ice Blast and Superior Blaster's Wrath in Bitter Ice Blast.  I wonder if I should switch this out.

Depending on what set bonuses you are chasing, no reason you can't have both purple procs in one power. It's not bad to have apoc proc in regular old ice blast, but typically a bit suboptimal for proc math 

[ScarySai]

Skip bitter freeze ray, rotate Freeze ray>Bitter Ice Blast>Ice Blast

 

 

Proceed to laugh and demolish everyone on single target.

[SnasonJoe]

Can anyone share their builds - I'm curious to see all the different ways to slot these.

 

Thanks in advance

[Tahliah]

On 2/24/2022 at 1:23 PM, Onlyasandwich said:

Depending on what set bonuses you are chasing, no reason you can't have both purple procs in one power. It's not bad to have apoc proc in regular old ice blast, but typically a bit suboptimal for proc math 

 

Hmmm, math hard. To me, anyway.  So you think I should switch out my sets in these powers? Easy enough to do, and if it makes my main better, yay!

[Tahliah]

On 2/26/2022 at 12:35 PM, ScarySai said:

Skip bitter freeze ray, rotate Freeze ray>Bitter Ice Blast>Ice Blast

 

 

Proceed to laugh and demolish everyone on single target.

 

Once I have finished my badging, I am definitely going to respec along these lines.  Since I solo so much (I also want to complete every Ouro mish solo, a personal goal), I really like having bitter.  It's a great power but doesn't perform well in a team setting for obvious reasons.  But goals get met (eventually), and then I can respec for team/general play.  (I'm saving this post for later reference, so thanks!)