Ice Blast guide?

[Papaschtroumpf]

I haven't been able to find a guide, either here or in the blaster section, and would like to see what other people think of the set and are doing with it.

I think it's slightly under par on the damage side although I haven't ran the numbers, but I think its debuffs can really help survivability when paired with the right defensive secondary (I went Ice/rad)

[Nyghtmaire]

Here is the link to the old forums Corruptor guides:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120904075831/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=114202

 

And the most recent Ice guide seems to be from I12, so grain of salt (which helps in snowy conditions!):

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120905043616/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=125275

[Papaschtroumpf]

Thanks!

 

That ice/kin guide does highlight the aspect I like about Ice, the fast animation, slow effect and possibly less resisted damage type, and of course holds :)

 

[mcbrazzle]

I had read a Reddit post recently that mentioned how much more damage ice is doing lately. I believe Pines was giving much higher damage numbers for the freeze rays. I have no clue how to test and compare but was wondering how much that changes up an Ice build or if it's even true.

[Hjarki]

I had read a Reddit post recently that mentioned how much more damage ice is doing lately. I believe Pines was giving much higher damage numbers for the freeze rays. I have no clue how to test and compare but was wondering how much that changes up an Ice build or if it's even true.

 

Both Pines and the in-game numbers reflect that Freezing Ray is the highest dpa single target power in the set. In contrast, Bitter Freeze Ray is primarily a Hold.

 

I think the main problem with Ice is that the attacks are so fast that it's tough to do a rotation with enormous amounts of recharge. You'd need +300% recharge to use Ice Bolt like Fire uses Flares.

 

Right now, Ice Blast is (potentially) the second highest damage single target Blast set and has the hardest-hitting ultimate. However, the rankings will depend a lot on where they land with Sniper changes - the reason Fire Blast has such an enormous lead in single target damage right now is the combination of a Sniper shot and a Superior damage short-range attack. On Live, both these attacks had significant limitations. On Homecoming, those limitations have been removed.

 

[Papaschtroumpf]

Fire has no secondary debuf when ice slows them, not just when running but recharge too, so they hit you less often. If you're teamed and others take care of aggro and debuffs, etc... you don't care as Fire (I have a fire corruptor too) but I suspect this build will solo better than my fire corruptor, although it may be a matter of x8+0 vs x2/4+4 notoriety setting.

Ice gets a bad rep but I think it is a very good set base on my current (admittedly limited) experience.

I got a big bored with my Fire/Dark corruptor in the 30s. It felt like tarpatch, Rain Of Fire, rinse repeat, whcih is why I decied to roll a more single target/EB/AV focused build.

[Necessity Bear]

Given all the talk about PPM, are there any blasters out there that can offer advice on effective proc slotting in Ice Blast?

I'm at the stage with my Ice/Nrg build (lv34) where most of my attacks are now 4 slotted and im looking at what kind of juicy proc action i can add in for the 5th and maybe 6th slot.

There appears to be lots of options. There's a unique 'Chance 4 Buildup' in one of the ranged sets that i want to use. A 'Chance 4 -Dmg Res' that id like to slip in to a couple of powers. Plus there's multiple 'Chance 4 Additional Dmg' procs available in toxic, energy, negative and smashing dmg flavours.

I was thinkin' of putting the Chance4BU and Chance4-DmgRes in the 5th and 6th slot of my cone. Im also thinking of adding a Chance4-DmgRes to each of my aoe's, but im just running and gunning here.

Any seasoned ice blasters or wisened ppm masters out there with an angle on all this? Penny for your thoughts, thx.