Ice/Elec/Psi Tanky Boi

[Sarah Bellum]

Hi all,

 

With the latest changes to Ice Control, I wanted to try and give it a fair shake. What I ended up with is expensive, super tight on slotting, and has hardly any damage output. The upside is that (before incarnates) It's also soft-capped defense to R/E/N, 75% resists on S/L/F/C, 64% resist to Psi, debuffs and confuses everything from bosses on down, and buffs your team in almost every way (to-hit, damage, heals, absorbs, recharge, endurance, resistance, & protection).

 

The stats below reflect zero accolades and zero incarnates.

 

 

All that tanky goodness comes in handy when your strategy is to wade into mobs with Arctic Air & World of Confusion. You're basically a self-contained, always-on, boss-confusing menace to criminal society. A walking taco of control.

 

Basic strategy for regular content:

 

1. Find a large group of miscreants.
2. Walk, fly, jog, tap-dance, etc over to said miscreants.
3. Pop Faraday Cage.
4. Frostbite.
5. Laugh as Energy Fonts spring into existence while you stand there.
6. If things get hairy, target a friendly close to you and focus on buffing. Your control is always on in the background.

 

The build exemplars well. Just about all of your tools are available by level 16.

 

The build levels well (particularly so if you level with IOs). You can feel yourself becoming more effective as you progress.

 

Do:

 

• Remember to pop Faraday Cage wherever you stop (or if you're mezzed while on the go).
• Remember that World of Confusion has a smaller radius. So to be most effective, you really REALLY gotta get in there. :)
• Remember to have a friendly (player or pet) nearby to heal/buff yourself.
• Be smart about more difficult groups (pay attention to sappers, hold those damnable MoG bosses before they pop it, watch out for master illusionists, etc).

 

Don't:

• Frostbite willy-nilly if there's a competent tank on the team. Be judicious about it.
• Forget to layer more control as required: Ice Slick, Glacier, etc.
• Be too timid. You have solid always-on control, and many tools to keep yourself going.
• Get too cocky. Your defenses are a house of cards.

 

I would love some critique or suggestions for improvement, if anyone is willing.

 

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Edited September 23, 2022 by Sarah Bellum
Mids export looked wonky

[SeraphimKensai]

Seems like an interesting concept.

[Psyonico]

I like the idea, and I'm going to steal it, just want to make a couple changes to a few things.  I don't necessarily see a whole lot of things to change, but I would like to fit Cold Snap into the build.  I think what I'll do is drop Chilblain, take Mental Blast instead of Indomitable Will, and take Cold Snap instead of Chilblain.  Then steal slots from Fly/Hover to slot out Cold Snap.  I know I won't have capped F/C resist anymore (at least, before the Scaling Damage IO kicks up more than the 3%) but the extra control of Cold Snap just seems hard to pass up.  I'll work on the build then post it here as well.

[Sarah Bellum]

6 hours ago, Psyonico said:

I like the idea, and I'm going to steal it, just want to make a couple changes to a few things.  I don't necessarily see a whole lot of things to change, but I would like to fit Cold Snap into the build.  I think what I'll do is drop Chilblain, take Mental Blast instead of Indomitable Will, and take Cold Snap instead of Chilblain.  Then steal slots from Fly/Hover to slot out Cold Snap.  I know I won't have capped F/C resist anymore (at least, before the Scaling Damage IO kicks up more than the 3%) but the extra control of Cold Snap just seems hard to pass up.  I'll work on the build then post it here as well.

 

Nice! I like those ideas. You're right about the scaling resist IO eventually capping resists as you take damage. It probably does make it feasible to stop just shy of caps if it means you get more control. I think I stubbornly was chasing resist caps to see if I could and was pleasantly surprised when I managed to get them. I really do like flying fast and that played into it as well. Incidentally, you could sub leaping or teleport in for the flight powers and have the same stats. Combat teleport looked like it could provide some interesting options for opening up on a new mob.

[Psyonico]

Here is what I came up with, I moved a few powers around because I'm leveling this toon, so I wanted to have certain powers taken as soon as possible.  I'm also debating between Defibrillate and Maneuvers, as a little extra defense is always good.  I opted for Super Jump/Combat Jumping instead of Fly/Hover because Hover is pretty slow without the extra slots you had in there for movement speed.

Thunderdome Referee - Controller (Ice Control).mxd

[Sarah Bellum]

On 9/24/2022 at 10:35 AM, Psyonico said:

Here is what I came up with, I moved a few powers around because I'm leveling this toon, so I wanted to have certain powers taken as soon as possible.  I'm also debating between Defibrillate and Maneuvers, as a little extra defense is always good.  I opted for Super Jump/Combat Jumping instead of Fly/Hover because Hover is pretty slow without the extra slots you had in there for movement speed.

Thunderdome Referee - Controller (Ice Control).mxd 5.08 kB · 6 downloads

 

I'd love to hear how those changes work out for you.

[Psyonico]

Currently he's level 17 and has been really fun so far.  The only IO I've slotted at this point is the Energy Font proc in Arctic Air.  It's pretty impressive how well that works in there.

 

Between Arctic Air, Cold Snap, and Ice Slick, I feel like I've got a good amount of AoE control, especially since I'm such a low level.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how he plays out.

[Sovera]

I'm not a Controller player since ultimately not being able to kill enemies gets to me even when I'm teamed, but I like both builds that were posted. The low damage of Ice Control should be helped by the double layer of Confuse though both rely on going into melee range which is not something I can condone 😄

 

That said the emphasis on chasing Fire&Cold resistances seem a bit gratuitous unless something has changed. Those two were always considered low priority since S/L and E/N are much more common, and, in particular, a Controller ought to have groups CCed. If there are free mobs hitting back then the Controller is slipping.

 

 

I've tried my hand at the last posted build. Take it with a grain of salt since:

 

A) I don't play Controllers to begin with.

B) Both builds look already pretty tight and thumbs-up-y.

 

 

I took out the mass immobilize for Hasten stemming from my dislike of it, but obviously replace Hasten for it if desiring it. I would have changed SJ for Fly and just hover out of reach while both PbAoE fields did their thing and Frost wailed on the enemies, but that's just me.

 

Spoiler

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.6
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Thunderdome Referee: Level 49 Natural Controller
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Electrical Affinity
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Block of Ice

• (A) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration
• (3) Superior Will of the Controller - Control Duration/Recharge
• (3) Superior Will of the Controller - Endurance/Recharge
• (13) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance
• (15) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance/Recharge
• (34) Superior Will of the Controller - Recharge/Chance for Psionic Damage
  

Level 1: Shock

• (A) Accuracy IO
  

Level 2: Rejuvenating Circuit

• (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance
• (5) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge
• (5) Panacea - Heal/Recharge
• (21) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
• (40) Panacea - Heal
  

Level 4: Galvanic Sentinel

• (A) Accuracy IO
  

Level 6: Arctic Air

• (A) Superior Overpowering Presence - Accuracy/Control Duration
• (7) Superior Overpowering Presence - Control Duration/RechargeTime
• (7) Superior Overpowering Presence - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (39) Superior Overpowering Presence - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance
• (39) Superior Overpowering Presence - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (40) Superior Overpowering Presence - RechargeTime/Energy Font
  

Level 8: Cold Snap

• (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Range/Slow
• (9) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance
• (9) Pacing of the Turtle - Damage/Slow
• (21) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Slow
• (47) Pacing of the Turtle - Chance of -Recharge
• (48) Pacing of the Turtle - Endurance/Recharge/Slow
  

Level 10: Energizing Circuit

• (A) Synapse's Shock - EndMod
• (11) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Rechage
• (11) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Recharge
• (15) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (43) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Accuracy/Endurance
• (43) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Increased Run Speed
  

Level 12: Ice Slick

• (A) Artillery - Accuracy/Damage
• (13) Artillery - Damage/Endurance
• (25) Artillery - Endurance/Recharge/Range
• (37) Artillery - Damage/Recharge
• (37) Artillery - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (39) Artillery - Accuracy/Recharge/Range
  

Level 14: Super Jump

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
• (37) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
  

Level 16: Faraday Cage

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• (17) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (17) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance
• (23) Titanium Coating - Resistance
  

Level 18: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (19) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 20: Empowering Circuit

• (A) Adjusted Targeting - Endurance/Recharge
• (23) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge
• (31) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance
  

Level 22: Boxing

• (A) Empty
  

Level 24: Kick

• (A) Empty
  

Level 26: Glacier

• (A) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold
• (27) Superior Entomb - Hold/Recharge
• (27) Superior Entomb - Endurance/Recharge
• (31) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance
• (31) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 28: Weave

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (29) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance
• (29) Reactive Defenses - Defense
• (46) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
  

Level 30: Defibrillate

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 32: Jack Frost

• (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (34) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge
• (34) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets
  

Level 35: Insulating Circuit

• (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance
• (36) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge
• (36) Panacea - Heal/Recharge
• (36) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Panacea - Heal
  

Level 38: Amp Up

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (47) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 41: Mental Blast

• (A) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge
• (42) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/RechargeTime
• (42) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (42) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (43) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
  

Level 44: World of Confusion

• (A) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused
• (45) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Recharge
• (45) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Recharge/Accuracy
• (45) Coercive Persuasion  - Recharge/Accuracy
• (46) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Endurance
• (46) Coercive Persuasion  - Contagious Confusion
  

Level 47: Mind Over Body

• (A) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance
• (48) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge
• (48) Reactive Armor - Resistance
  

Level 49: Combat Jumping

• (A) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• (49) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 1: Containment

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Empty
  

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Swift

• (A) Run Speed IO
  

Level 1: Hurdle

• (A) Jumping IO
  

Level 1: Health

• (A) Miracle - +Recovery
• (19) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
  

Level 1: Stamina

• (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
• (25) Performance Shifter - EndMod
  

Level 14: Double Jump

------------

 

[Sarah Bellum]

On 9/26/2022 at 6:18 AM, Sovera said:

That said the emphasis on chasing Fire&Cold resistances seem a bit gratuitous unless something has changed. Those two were always considered low priority since S/L and E/N are much more common, and, in particular, a Controller ought to have groups CCed. If there are free mobs hitting back then the Controller is slipping.

 

I think that makes sense from your perspective.  My goal was to create a well-rounded set of defenses to be able to drop into most mobs with predictable performance. Being a controller, defenses are a little harder to come by. So I had to compromise. E/N/R are covered by defense and S/L/F/C/P are covered by resists. The controls are what provide the majority of damage mitigation, and the secondary covers damage that does make it through.

 

This build was designed with the current steam-roller style of play in CoH.  Your control is always on and ready for whichever group you wade into. I've been able to function as the tank in +4/8.