Fun with Ice/Nature - theorycrafting

[Metatheory]

Hello 'Trollers!

 

I've been having fun with my Ice/Nature and I'm thinking how to build him out properly. I don't know ice control very well at all, either pre- or post- changes, but I have played nature a fair bit on controllers and 'fenders, so I know may way around there fairly well. 

 

The reason I rolled this combo is that I wanted to see what could be done with a PBAoE toggle approach. Mainly I wanted to leverage:

 

• Glacier and Entangling Aura. They combine for an up-to Mag 5 hold aura.
• Arctic Air and World of Confusion from the Psionic Mastery APP. They should combine for an up-to Mag 5 PBAoE confuse aura - always on!

 

Factoring in Overgrowth's wild (see what I did there?) To-Hit buff, these powers should hit often.

 

That seems to me like it could be pretty good, but you do have to get pretty close to the action to affect plenty of mobs. Probably the main risk there is getting mezzed (and dropping offensive toggles) so secondary power picks could be looking to provide a layer of mez-protect:

 

• Taking Psionic Mastery makes Indomitable Will available which offers a nice range of mez resistance
• Rune of protection can also be taken to use in emergencies as a super-BF

 

Of course, one could also go down the defense road for mez-protection, but building up comprehensive def on a 'troller takes quite a lot of effort, and possibly isn't worth it (?) as this build should aim for a lot of recharge in order to get Glacier up as often as possible. In addition, Ice Slick is a single power pick, possibly a one-slot wonder, and offers a LOT of protection vs many mobs in the game. If it works as well as Ice Patch on melee characters it will offer a lot of mitigation. But *IF* one were to go down a defense route, how would you do it? Positional? Typed? Keeping in mind that this is a PBAoE based control character.

 

So that's 11 powers I'm pretty much committed to (including Hasten for recharge, and the two qualifiers for Rune) which leaves a lot of room for creativity. There is one other power I want to take, which is Chillblain, as I'm sick of fighting AVs where the blasters haven't taken their T1 immob and the Brutes haven't taken a taunt. Not having the AVs run all over the map is a nice QoL feature, and fixed with one pick. And besides, it is very nice for setting up containment on bosses in one shot, and potentially a good place for a controller AT IO set. And, at the end of the day, controllers can't Brute/Blaster-shame if they haven't taken their T1 immob...

 

Given the context of leveraging the PBAoE potential of Ice/Nature, what other power picks or strategies do you think would make sense?

[Uun]

Neither Entangling Aura or Arctic Air have a tohit check and are unaffected by tohit buffs. They're autohit with an x% chance of their effect(s) occurring every 2 seconds. Enhancing hold or confuse duration will reduce the chance of the effect dropping. (World of Confusion does have a tohit check.) 

 

You shouldn't run Arctic Air and Entangling Aura together. The hold will negate the confuse.

[SeraphimKensai]

I personally find World of Confusion pretty lackluster as it's radius is only 8 feet, whereas Artic Air's is 25.

 

I'd much rather consider either going primal for power boost to enhance Wild Growth/Bastion/Overgrowth. Or perhaps Leviathan to get Waterspout to use on the immobilized targets for some self damage.

 

The thing about the confuses that is counter productive is all your ice effects slow the mobs recharge, and ice slick knocks them on their ass along with the holds also negating their damage to each other.

 

I would work in Clarion radial to act as a power boost in conjunction with power boost for upping your long lasting click buffs. Clarion will also resolve most mez issues. Rune of Power can still be taken to give you more resistance when necessary though. I'd probably also boost that with melee core for the extra resistance per mob nearby since given artic air you'll be playing in melee a lot.