Suggestions for best solo ice theme hero AT

[Nostromo21]

Hi folks,

 

I love ice/cold as a theme, but haven't had a lot of success with it so far, ahem. The cold/ice defender was meh, ice/ice stalker so so, sentinel not my cuppa, I think a blaster or corruptor may be too squishy for my play style. I prefer ranged and stealthy characters, and I've mostly enjoyed trollers, doms, MMs, my squids and Fortunata. I don't mind tankers in theory, as slow as they can be to level, given their godliness - how would an ice/ice one be for solo levelling...? (A corruptor looks better than a blaster anyway, given I'd only have to skip a couple team-only shields in the secondary, whereas the blaster has a lot more melee powers I'd skip).

 

Thanks in advance one and all!

Edited June 27 by Nostromo21

[UltraAlt]

2 minutes ago, Nostromo21 said:

I don't mind tankers in theory, as slow as they can be to level, given their godliness - how would an ice/ice one be for solo levelling...?

 

Ice is nice.

It is slow regardless of the archetype. It is based on slow.

 

I think ice - in general - works best when on a team.

 

Though Ice is slow, it give a good amount of survivability based on how much it can slow opponents.

As always, archetypes that can do more damage are more likely to meet what someone would want for "solo" use, so I would suggest, a Blaster, Scrapper, Sentinel, Tank, or Brute.

 

I have Ice/? blasters but I don't think I have an ice/ice one.

 

I don't think that I have an Ice/? or ?/ice scrapper. I had a spines/ice scrapper before the sunset - treating the spines like icicles. Worked pretty good solo as I recall.

 

I've played a water/ice Sentinel and that's fun, but I was teaming. I don't have an ice/ice Sentinels.

 

I think I played a Ice/ice Tank on Live.  But I can't remember what it was playing it. I have a friend that really likes ice/ice tanks, but he teams.

 

No idea about an ice/ice brute.

[Lusiphur Malache]

I have an ice/ice blaster.  It is the best ice controller in the game, i think.  I usually make all my blasters into blappers, because melee is where the damage is for blasters. It doesn't take a lot of melee attacks to be effective, maybe 3 or 4.  Soloing is viable with Ice but need a lot of recharge reduction.

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Lusiphur Malache said:

I have an ice/ice blaster.  It is the best ice controller in the game, i think.  I usually make all my blasters into blappers, because melee is where the damage is for blasters. It doesn't take a lot of melee attacks to be effective, maybe 3 or 4.  Soloing is viable with Ice but need a lot of recharge reduction.

Ice/ice Blasters are not only the most controlling Blaster (oh, those Single Target Holds!) but are one of the hardest hitting Single Target attack chains.  They also play exclusively at range.  Solving at least some of your concerns and suited to your ranged preference. 

[Nostromo21]

Cheers guys, I made a ice/cold corruptor on a whim, but I'm now going back to make a blaster! I had an ice & fire blaster as my main back on live, but didn't like much of the fire melee stuff & he was very squishy until the late 30s from memory. The only blaster to date that I've felt really strong and comfortable with at range is my dark/ninja which has the best survivability of any blaster I remember playing (with just 2 ninja powers lol!), and pretty good damage from dark.

 

Ok, re-rolling an ice ice baby blaster now - you better not be trolling me chat! 😉

----

Ok, I'm thinking something along the lines of this:

 

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Edited June 27 by Nostromo21

[UltraAlt]

23 minutes ago, Nostromo21 said:

I had an ice & fire blaster as my main back on live, but didn't like much of the fire melee stuff & he was very squishy until the late 30s from memory

 

One of my favorite ice blaster is a Ice/Martial arts

I love putting Ki push on autofire and cornering enemies with it. Usually end up slotting it two 2 acc, 1 recharge, and a https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Blistering_Cold:_Recharge/Chance_for_Hold from the Lords of Winter pack (probably best to buy with merits at a merit vendor).

[kelika2]

Seconding ice/ice blaster

Can also try pistol/ice blaster

 

I have a Titan(that bigass ice scythe weapon)/ice armor scrapper thats alright

[GM Impervium]

As this is a question about ATs, moved to Archetypes forum =)

[Frozen Burn]

7 hours ago, Nostromo21 said:

I had an ice & fire blaster as my main back on live, but didn't like much of the fire melee stuff & he was very squishy until the late 30s from memory. The only blaster to date that I've felt really strong and comfortable with at range is my dark/ninja which has the best survivability of any blaster I remember playing (with just 2 ninja powers lol!), and pretty good damage from dark.

 

 

Ice/Fire is a very strong and survivable combo up through all the levels.  It's been my main and namesake since 2004 when the game first went live.  There are also many, many blaster combos that are survivable and strong.  

 

However, from reading your posts, you do not seem keen on the melee powers and skip most, if not all of them.  That is part of your survivability issue.  A blaster's defense is their offense - kill the enemy quick, because a defeated enemy can't do any damage to you.  And a blaster's melee powers do the most damage.  Also, using the control powers within the sets also increase your survivability - so if you are skipping those as well, you are also gimping yourself.  

 

And Ice/Ice is a strong combo and survivable combo.  Good luck and enjoy!

[Ukase]

Ice is nice. Very nice. 
I have an ice/cold corruptor. An excellent combo if you're feeling generous enough to cast buffs and do dps. 

I have ice/ice blaster. Ice/fire blaster. Ice/Atomic blaster, Ice/energy blaster, ice/devices blaster...all kinds of ice blasters! 

Of them all, ice/fire is probably the best for my play style. Ice/ice is probably the most survivable, tho. (Ice/dark is right in that mix) 

There's a number of folks who love to use the term blapper because they go into melee a lot. It saddens me, because these players just don't understand that a blaster is at home in melee. The ranged attacks are generally there to pull - get the npcs attention - and close in. Yes, you can certainly just use ranged attacks. In the earlier levels, this is advisable, because in melee is where a lot of the stuns & alpha hits take place, leading to premature defeat. 

But a lot of the sleeps/mez happen at range. So, with ice blast, you get to be proactive. Freeze Ray is super fast, unlike the heavier hitting bitter freeze ray. Ice patch in the early levels can be a life saver for you or a weaker teammate under attack. The npcs instantly bounce. (except certain NPCs who may resist the KD)

The slow - if you slot for it, is noticeable against some foes. But the dpa is outstanding. 

It's such an interesting thing to play fire/fire, than ice/ice. Both do great damage. And both, properly built can have great survivability in the toughest content. You just have to find that balance between chaos and order. When I play ice, and then play fire, I suddenly realize how vulnerable I am. I don't have anything to mitigate incoming attacks other than dps. 

Ice - I can drop a nuke at 80 feet. Fire, I have to be in the midst of mobs. For survival, there's no question, ice is where it's at. 
 

[Kai Moon]

Cold Domination

Sleet got nerfed hard last patch, it has basically no slow to keep enemies running away from its DoT. Have another method to keep enemies grouped up. Still a good all around buff and debuff set. Lack of heals is almost never an issue, but maybe load up on defense set bonuses, since otherwise you'll be squishier than your buffed teammates.

 

Ice Armor

Covers lots of bases. Also covers lots of your costume, plan your costume around it. Chilling Embrace (non-sentinels only) is a decent damage debuff, nice for tanking AVs.

 

Ice Blast

Haven't played it. Long standing reputation as a single target focused set. Probably for good reason. Sentinel version even more so.

Ice Control

Homecoming tried to buff this set. Tried. Ice Slick now has a little DoT, which is nice, but those DoTs cause fleeing, so make sure to use your slows and immobs. The fear added to Shiver/Cold Snap is only a narrow cone within the cone, so you end up having to aim it like a narrow cone anyway. Or skipping it, Ice Control doesn't really need more mitigation. I just like the visual of enemies shivering.

 

Ice Manipulation

Shares a few of Ice Melee's best powers. Freezing Touch isn't as OP as the ice melee version, but is still decent. Sustain toggle has the same damage debuff as Chilling Embrace, nice for blapping AVs. Ice Patch is good for grouping and mitigation.

 

Ice Melee

Seems to have been balanced purely by making Freezing Touch OP, so you sorta have to take that. Frost isn't as bad as Breath of Fire, but still, take it only if you love cones. Stalker version doesn't lose AoE, their assassin ice sword is a straight upgrade to Greater Ice Sword. Ice Patch is Ice Patch.

 

Icy Assault

Chilling Embrace is different in this set, more of a PBAoE damage toggle than a debuff (damage debuff cut in half, not so nice for tanking AVs). Ice Sword Circle isn't as good as Frozen Aura. But added together, that's more PBAoE damage than most dominator secondaries. And if you want to jump around with an ice sword, this is the only way.

 

Arsenal Control, Dual Pistols, Demon Summoning, Storm Blast, Storm Summoning

Ice-ish. Up to your concept and how you like the visuals.

Edited June 27 by Kai Moon
forgot storm blast

[EnjoyTheJourney]

FWIW I'm having fun leveling up an ice / savage / leviathan dominator. Shark skin, hibernate, and an icy-looking water spout are from Leviathan mastery. Savage is it's own thing, with a heal and a kind of combat teleport that recharges quite fast. Ice control on a dom has domination in arctic air, a PbAOE hold, and ice slick as its primary controls. Jack can be taken or not, totally up to you. 

The combat teleport and arctic air work well together. Teleport in with feral charge from maximum range (3 blood frenzy stacks), use vicious slash (2 blood frenzy stacks), and then cast rending flurry use those 5 blood frenzy stacks to increase the radius to 15 feet (shout out to Frosticus for pointing this out). As you're doing this arctic air is confusing and fearing mobs. This noticeably reduces the incoming alpha strike and it's a pretty good alpha to inflict on mobs. 

In case you want to make your dominator harder to defeat, Darkir has a fairly robust build for what he calls a "scrappy dom", which IIRC is a cold / savage / psi dominator. 

Another classic combination is an ice / icy / ice dominator. All of the stacked slows makes mobs basically crawl around and do less damage than they otherwise might. Single target damage isn't as high for icy assault as for several other dominator assault sets. It's still workable, though. 

Edited June 30 by EnjoyTheJourney

[PyroBeetle]

53 minutes ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

In case you want to make your dominator harder to defeat, Darkir has a fairly robust build for what he calls a "scrappy dom"

This is a great place to start for an ice themed beast of a character. Mine is modified somewhat, being Ice/Savage/Ice, but it is very effective solo and in groups.

 

Open up with your ice patch and rain powers from max distance, then savage leap in and go to work. Bounce in and out of melee range for savage leap and hawk when solo to maximize DPS.

[Nostromo21]

18 hours ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

FWIW I'm having fun leveling up an ice / savage / leviathan dominator. Shark skin, hibernate, and an icy-looking water spout are from Leviathan mastery. Savage is it's own thing, with a heal and a kind of combat teleport that recharges quite fast. Ice control on a dom has domination in arctic air, a PbAOE hold, and ice slick as its primary controls. Jack can be taken or not, totally up to you. 

The combat teleport and arctic air work well together. Teleport in with feral charge from maximum range (3 blood frenzy stacks), use vicious slash (2 blood frenzy stacks), and then cast rending flurry use those 5 blood frenzy stacks to increase the radius to 15 feet (shout out to Frosticus for pointing this out). As you're doing this arctic air is confusing and fearing mobs. This noticeably reduces the incoming alpha strike and it's a pretty good alpha to inflict on mobs. 

In case you want to make your dominator harder to defeat, Darkir has a fairly robust build for what he calls a "scrappy dom", which IIRC is a cold / savage / psi dominator. 

Another classic combination is an ice / icy / ice dominator. All of the stacked slows makes mobs basically crawl around and do less damage than they otherwise might. Single target damage isn't as high for icy assault as for several other dominator assault sets. It's still workable, though. 

 

Thanks guys, wasn't really even thinking about an ice dom, but now...I just can't imagine something replacing the sheer power and majesty that is Seeds of Confusion from my Plant/Thorny dom :). But I am off to make yet another alt later, because never let it be said that I got on top of alt-o-holism solo!!! 😉

[PyroBeetle]

8 hours ago, Nostromo21 said:

 

Thanks guys, wasn't really even thinking about an ice dom, but now...I just can't imagine something replacing the sheer power and majesty that is Seeds of Confusion from my Plant/Thorny dom :). But I am off to make yet another alt later, because never let it be said that I got on top of alt-o-holism solo!!! 😉

Sorry about that, HMU in game and I will share the build I use...just email @Chessmaster

 

Goodluck and may the alt be with you, always.

[Nostromo21]

On 7/1/2024 at 10:19 PM, PyroBeetle said:

Sorry about that, HMU in game and I will share the build I use...just email @Chessmaster

 

Goodluck and may the alt be with you, always.

 

Thanks matey, but I'm on Aus GMT+10 time, so unless you are as well, chances are we won't run into each other...like ships passing each other in the night (not the Titanic! ;).

[Doc Spectre]

Ice Armour has a no-FX option now days so you don’t have to worry about your costume being covered.

[Anthraxus]

I was able to make a pretty cool (and tough!) ice-themed tank using recolored Stone Armor/Ice Melee.

 

Stone is now a fantastic armor set, and the fact that Mud Pots has an integral slow effect makes it fit in that way with the ice theme.