Why no love for /COLD?

[Ironscarlet]

When I focus on choosing a secondary I had one goal solo AV and GM so -recovery was one of my goals. I was going to go Thermal but then read res shields were kinda pointless on pets so I looked at cold because of def shield would work better on pets. Had -recovery, def shield, and -res and -def. Just no solid heal. So why no love for /cold looks pretty solid. Cold Defenders were one of the strongest debuffers on live so why no love from MM. What am I missing?

 

Also min FX makes your group  looks like mini invulnerable shields on everyone looks pretty awesome.

[Sovera]

I'd say the lack of a heal. Aid Other does have a nice range, about 3-4 seconds CD, 35% HP. Might be workable.

[kelly Rocket]

Yeah, Frostwork isn't a heal at all. It's not even a Dull Pain, as far as I know, because from what I've heard--no direct experience so I can't confirm--it doesn't actually increase current HP proportional to the +MaxHP buff it gives you. So it's not terribly useful without someone who can actually heal along.

 

That said, you can absolutely get by without a heal, Force Field manages it fine, and so can Cold. But you do sort of wish you could heal a bit with MMs specifically sometimes. BG Mode makes aura heals very very useful, so people tend to gravitate towards sets with those. And while you can pick up Medicine for Aid Other and Aid Self, there's no way to get an AoE heal from a pool, sadly.

[Force Redux]

I'd say the lack of a heal. Aid Other does have a nice range, about 3-4 seconds CD, 35% HP. Might be workable.

Even better with field medic to remove the interrupt. I say this as a Bubbler. :)

[Dixa]

time does it all better. powerboosted farsight is only 3 points off one of the cold bubbles only it's def to all whereas the cold bubbles have defensive holes.

[Force Redux]

time does it all better. powerboosted farsight is only 3 points off one of the cold bubbles only it's def to all whereas the cold bubbles have defensive holes.

 

Advantage Bubbles and Cold, they can apply their defense buffs over distance and quickly. Not everyone or everything is in range when FS goes off.

[Dixa]

time does it all better. powerboosted farsight is only 3 points off one of the cold bubbles only it's def to all whereas the cold bubbles have defensive holes.

 

Advantage Bubbles and Cold, they can apply their defense buffs over distance and quickly. Not everyone or everything is in range when FS goes off.

 

true but that's the teams problem. I tell 'em to gather for farsight. they don't pay attention. they can read chat from the hospital.

[Force Redux]

time does it all better. powerboosted farsight is only 3 points off one of the cold bubbles only it's def to all whereas the cold bubbles have defensive holes.

 

Advantage Bubbles and Cold, they can apply their defense buffs over distance and quickly. Not everyone or everything is in range when FS goes off.

 

true but that's the teams problem. I tell 'em to gather for farsight. they don't pay attention. they can read chat from the hospital.

*Chuckle*

[Ninjaboy]

Testing out a Ninjas / Cold and it is solid.

 

Maneuvers + Arctic Fog +  Ice Shields = Miss fest

 

Benumb is one of the best debuffs in the game. Slot that baby for recharge.

 

 

Aid Other is kind of bad. The range isn't good tbh and getting interrupted is just awful. Getting the last talent in that medicine pool is tight depending on your build too.

 

/Cold is exceptional for PvP as well.

[Force Redux]

Testing out a Ninjas / Cold and it is solid.

 

Maneuvers + Arctic Fog +  Ice Shields = Miss fest

 

Benumb is one of the best debuffs in the game. Slot that baby for recharge.

 

 

Aid Other is kind of bad. The range isn't good tbh and getting interrupted is just awful. Getting the last talent in that medicine pool is tight depending on your build too.

 

/Cold is exceptional for PvP as well.

 

This is good to hear. It's feeding my altitis!

The Field Medic passive is very helpful for me to my Bots/FF. Big QoL improvement from Live. Some range enhancement helps.

[WumpusRat]

I'm working on a ninja/cold at the moment. Given how squishy the ninjas are, I wanted something that would make them as durable as possible, and since they're def-based, I figure either /FF or /Cold would be best. /FF is very dull, though, so I went with /Cold. The -recharge debuffs combined with the +def means the ninjas rarely get hit, so they've been pretty survivable so far. Occasionally one of the genin will eat a nasty attack and drop, but it's been workable. The lack of a heal in /Cold is annoying, but taking Aid Other works well enough. Just wish you could change the animation for it, as my mastermind is meant to be a magic-based frost-spirit, so pulling out a little tricorder and tossing a heal seems a bit out of place. Other than that I've had good success with it, solo and in groups.

[Lazarillo]

Been trying a Beast/Cold, since they felt thematically similar.  Still only in the late teens, and outside of the hindsight 20/20 realization that I really shouldn't be fighting Tsoo, it's done okay.  I definitely feel the lack of healing, especially because, since I can't do much for my own defense, I pretty much have to let the puppers tank things.  On paper, the build should eventually allow all the pets to be soft-capped, though, so that should be...interesting.

[McJigg]

I'm playing Beast/cold myself, hit 30 last night with it. So far I've no major speed bumps. I solo'd through Praetoria with enemies set to x2 from the start. Even got down the elite boss Protean from that post-Praetoria story line done with no issue.

 

I admit, I took no travel powers, opting instead for that panther form from the Pay 2 Win vendors. I think it's equivalent to Ninja Run. Took Aid Other, Aid Self and Field Medic, that helped a lot. The ice shields did well enough I took Assault over Maneuvers in the early levels and just took Maneuvers now as my level 30 ability.

 

I'm now having no issue soloing at x3 but some groups take longer than others. At 28 I could frankly AFK when fighting the lost at x3 but we'll see what some of the more interesting enemy groups bring now that I'm just getting over 30. Freakshow take some more management but that's partially from just how long it takes to bring them down. The minions heal, the lieutenants rez and Tanks are pretty resistant to lethal, but they tend to be harmless as infrigidate saps their recharge. Haven't had too much experience throwing out benumb yet but it feels good to use. So far have skipped frostwork and snowstorm.

 

Excited to see how the level 32 upgrade will change things. Planning on going down Chill Mastery for my epic pool. So far have been very happy with Beast/cold.

 

 

[You]

Cold is sort of a late bloomer. Once you get Benumbed and Sleet, and with good recharge, it will be a very good set.

 

The average -regen, -res and -def of Cold are higher than Trap and Dark. Although Poison Trap has a very high -regen but it’s duration is short and on a longer cool down. Similarly, Howling Twilight has same problem although with a high recharge, it will get better. That said, Heat Exhaustion appears to be able to sustain a even higher -regen uptime.

 

Even double Acid Mortar can’t compete with double Sleet because Mortar has a slightly lower base -res and -def.

 

One thing about Cold though is that you have to take all the powers which limits the build flexibility a bit.

 

It is best to pair with bots, thugs or beasts.

[Elthenar]

Cold is outstanding. The defense buffs are everything they advertised. Its kind of a struggle until you get to 22 and can drop IOs in there but once you do, they deliver. I am doing ninja/cold and with the bubbles plus maneuvers most enemies struggle to hit them. The medicine tree is more than enough to keep rolling.

 

It might be less effective on pets that dont have the native 10% or so defense that Ninjas start with but it would still work well enough for any pet.

[SinergyX]

Cold is outstanding. The defense buffs are everything they advertised. Its kind of a struggle until you get to 22 and can drop IOs in there but once you do, they deliver. I am doing ninja/cold and with the bubbles plus maneuvers most enemies struggle to hit them. The medicine tree is more than enough to keep rolling.

 

It might be less effective on pets that dont have the native 10% or so defense that Ninjas start with but it would still work well enough for any pet.

I did a test yesterday on that +HP ability, pets actualy get upto 400HP (zombi go from 580 to 840) from this and its possible with just 3 recharge in the ability to perma boost HP for 3 of your pets. Sadly, their regen dont go up (hp/sec still calculated from base), it gives you a shitload of space to take that odd hit and not being one-shotted, so you can aid-other them all in time.

 

 

[Elthenar]

Cold is outstanding. The defense buffs are everything they advertised. Its kind of a struggle until you get to 22 and can drop IOs in there but once you do, they deliver. I am doing ninja/cold and with the bubbles plus maneuvers most enemies struggle to hit them. The medicine tree is more than enough to keep rolling.

 

It might be less effective on pets that dont have the native 10% or so defense that Ninjas start with but it would still work well enough for any pet.

I did a test yesterday on that +HP ability, pets actualy get upto 400HP (zombi go from 580 to 840) from this and its possible with just 3 recharge in the ability to perma boost HP for 3 of your pets. Sadly, their regen dont go up (hp/sec still calculated from base), it gives you a shitload of space to take that odd hit and not being one-shotted, so you can aid-other them all in time.

 

Yup. I didnt even cover the awesome debuffs either. Sleet, benumb and heat loss? Oh my!

 

I even get mileage out if snow storm, the -fly is sexy when using melee pets.

[Fichenchips]

I am a huge fan of cold actually.

 

Sleet in my opinion is the best power in the game for a Mastermind. The massive slow which reduces damage taken by a huge amount, the nonparallel defense decrease that helps your T1's hit with less Accuracy boosts and the outstanding resistance debuff that can be compounded with Achilles Heel. You can also get some damage out of it with Lady of the Grey or Shield Breaker procs. There is only one other power like it and that's Freezing Rain from Storm, but Storm forces you to use Hurricane which is a headache and a half to deal with despite being amazing. Oil Slick is very comparable to Sleet, but Trick Arrow is a very difficult set to use effectively.

 

The shields, stealth and IO aura's make capping Defense as easy as can be for any pet types. I don't really understand the hype for Benumb, but Heat loss is very nice for even more resistance debuff.

 

I personally skip Snow Storm and Frostwork. Snow Storm because I feel it's just not worth using and once you get Sleet I've literally never used it, unless I'm like, "Oh I have nothing to do, guess Ill cast this." and it really makes no difference in the fights in my opinion. I skip Frostwork, because it may have its uses but I don't like maintaining buffs on 3 Tier 1 pets. That's more of a lazy thing. It's just not fun maintaining buffs in my opinion. This allows me to get more powers from the Ancillary tree, and there are ALOT of good ones for MM. So fun to have THREE sleets running at the same time when you take burn out. That's -90% resistances not counting Achilles Heel procs and then you throw two heat exhaustions out and you've got one fragile bad guy.

 

Cold is also a light endurance costing power, so you have a lot of room for all of the leadership things, tough, weave, combat jumping, acrobatics, whatever you want.

 

The obvious weakness being no heal, but really post 30 you rarely use heals.

 

 

[WumpusRat]

I still keep aid other/self/field medic around for when I'm grouping, and for the odd time that one of my pets takes one of those 5% blows to the face from a boss and manages to survive with a sliver of health. One instant aid other (I love field medic) and they're back in the fray and kicking ass.

 

Right now I'm working on a robots/cold to go along with my ninja/cold. Thinking about trying out a thug/cold and/or beast/cold as well. The beast/cold is a bit more thematic, especially with the dire wolf spewing cold attacks around.

[Dixa]

I am a huge fan of cold actually.

 

Sleet in my opinion is the best power in the game for a Mastermind. The massive slow which reduces damage taken by a huge amount, the nonparallel defense decrease that helps your T1's hit with less Accuracy boosts and the outstanding resistance debuff that can be compounded with Achilles Heel. You can also get some damage out of it with Lady of the Grey or Shield Breaker procs. There is only one other power like it and that's Freezing Rain from Storm, but Storm forces you to use Hurricane which is a headache and a half to deal with despite being amazing. Oil Slick is very comparable to Sleet, but Trick Arrow is a very difficult set to use effectively.

 

The shields, stealth and IO aura's make capping Defense as easy as can be for any pet types. I don't really understand the hype for Benumb, but Heat loss is very nice for even more resistance debuff.

 

I personally skip Snow Storm and Frostwork. Snow Storm because I feel it's just not worth using and once you get Sleet I've literally never used it, unless I'm like, "Oh I have nothing to do, guess Ill cast this." and it really makes no difference in the fights in my opinion. I skip Frostwork, because it may have its uses but I don't like maintaining buffs on 3 Tier 1 pets. That's more of a lazy thing. It's just not fun maintaining buffs in my opinion. This allows me to get more powers from the Ancillary tree, and there are ALOT of good ones for MM. So fun to have THREE sleets running at the same time when you take burn out. That's -90% resistances not counting Achilles Heel procs and then you throw two heat exhaustions out and you've got one fragile bad guy.

 

Cold is also a light endurance costing power, so you have a lot of room for all of the leadership things, tough, weave, combat jumping, acrobatics, whatever you want.

 

The obvious weakness being no heal, but really post 30 you rarely use heals.

 

sleet has the same -defense of freezing rain at 30% unenhanced

 

the -resist on these powers is resistable based on level difference. it will only give you 30% resist debuff on same level minions. achilles heel will always be -20% regardless of level difference.

 

farsight provides the same defensive bonus as both cold shields together and unlike the shields, provides that defense to all as well as a +tohit buff for your pets. time also has a superior heal. cold has superior -regen if you can slot enough recharge to make it permanent.

[kelly Rocket]

Sleet IS Freezing Rain. It's absolutely identical in every way. Most of the powers in Cold are recycled from other sets.

[You]

I am a huge fan of cold actually.

 

Sleet in my opinion is the best power in the game for a Mastermind. The massive slow which reduces damage taken by a huge amount, the nonparallel defense decrease that helps your T1's hit with less Accuracy boosts and the outstanding resistance debuff that can be compounded with Achilles Heel. You can also get some damage out of it with Lady of the Grey or Shield Breaker procs. There is only one other power like it and that's Freezing Rain from Storm, but Storm forces you to use Hurricane which is a headache and a half to deal with despite being amazing. Oil Slick is very comparable to Sleet, but Trick Arrow is a very difficult set to use effectively.

 

The shields, stealth and IO aura's make capping Defense as easy as can be for any pet types. I don't really understand the hype for Benumb, but Heat loss is very nice for even more resistance debuff.

 

I personally skip Snow Storm and Frostwork. Snow Storm because I feel it's just not worth using and once you get Sleet I've literally never used it, unless I'm like, "Oh I have nothing to do, guess Ill cast this." and it really makes no difference in the fights in my opinion. I skip Frostwork, because it may have its uses but I don't like maintaining buffs on 3 Tier 1 pets. That's more of a lazy thing. It's just not fun maintaining buffs in my opinion. This allows me to get more powers from the Ancillary tree, and there are ALOT of good ones for MM. So fun to have THREE sleets running at the same time when you take burn out. That's -90% resistances not counting Achilles Heel procs and then you throw two heat exhaustions out and you've got one fragile bad guy.

 

Cold is also a light endurance costing power, so you have a lot of room for all of the leadership things, tough, weave, combat jumping, acrobatics, whatever you want.

 

The obvious weakness being no heal, but really post 30 you rarely use heals.

 

sleet has the same -defense of freezing rain at 30% unenhanced

 

the -resist on these powers is resistable based on level difference. it will only give you 30% resist debuff on same level minions. achilles heel will always be -20% regardless of level difference.

 

farsight provides the same defensive bonus as both cold shields together and unlike the shields, provides that defense to all as well as a +tohit buff for your pets. time also has a superior heal. cold has superior -regen if you can slot enough recharge to make it permanent.

 

Time is of course very good.  Just MM's pets cannot make the most of the +recharge somewhat lower the effectiveness of the set.  Besides, if -regen is good for both solo and group contents anyway.

[SmalltalkJava]

/Cold is strong.  I'm leveling one up now.  I took Aid Other, and also the Absorb thing from Sorcery pool.    I'm only level 19, but it seems to be doing ok.  The thing it is missing is a Heal.  Just like /sonic and /FF.    That is the weak spot of all 3.

[Force Redux]

/Cold is strong.  I'm leveling one up now.  I took Aid Other, and also the Absorb thing from Sorcery pool.    I'm only level 19, but it seems to be doing ok.  The thing it is missing is a Heal.  Just like /sonic and /FF.    That is the weak spot of all 3.

 

Thankfully with Field Medic, Aid Other is much more enjoyable to use. With good Defense, I don't even use it that much. One day I'll get a /Cold MM going. :)

[Greentea]

When I focus on choosing a secondary I had one goal solo AV and GM so -recovery was one of my goals. I was going to go Thermal but then read res shields were kinda pointless on pets so I looked at cold because of def shield would work better on pets. Had -recovery, def shield, and -res and -def. Just no solid heal. So why no love for /cold looks pretty solid. Cold Defenders were one of the strongest debuffers on live so why no love from MM. What am I missing?

 

Also min FX makes your group  looks like mini invulnerable shields on everyone looks pretty awesome.

 

Thermal isn't useless. It's very useful for Necromancy. The Necro pets are weak to fire, but with the thermal shields, who cares?