Everything I love about /Marine

[Tanked King Leo]

Hey guys, I have noticed that there seem to be a lot of people seeking builds and advice for /Marine trollers and Marine/ defenders. So, I thought I would share my thoughts and experiences on an Ice/Marine Controller

 

Firstly, Marine was a pleasure to level and I felt superpowered the whole way to 50. Levels 1-10 were, as always, a breeze. Pick up Soothing Wave, Frostbite, Toroidal bubble, and Artic Air for normal troller shenanigans.

 

However at lvl 12 things get interesting. Ice Slick is hands down one of my favorite powers in the game.  

 

At 16 Tide pool adds to your debuffs nicely, and adds to the KB/KD hilarity.

 

Now, one thing I have noticed is that many people seem to skip Whitecap. In my opinion this is the wrong move. I took it at 18. Its a nice -res and adds to the KD. It also lets you close the gap so that Arctic Air can start doing work. (keep some blue inspirations to help with end troubles)

 

Then Brine at 20 makes you a -res and KD god. Mobs Melt, Bosses fall like rain, and your teammates take notice. Many commenting on the hilarity of how nothing can stay on its feet. 

 

By lvl 32 you can cap the whole teams HP, help with the early lvl end troubles of your allies, give respectable resist and defense buffs, and buff everyone's damage. That's on top of the benefits I already listed.  You also have a great pet that is virtually indestructible and can help with agro and dps if you are solo. (keeping Shifting Tides on Jack is a definite plus)

 

Now sitting at 50 and roughly 90% finished with my personal IO set build, I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite toons. It is without a doubt one of the best teaming toons I have ever made. (It does well solo and feels very powerful but truly shines in team activities.)

 

Damage, while not the best with ice/ is respectable and with Soul mastery you can get even more resist and damage/to hit. 

 

All of this is pre incarnates!!! I want to make it perfectly clear. This toon is amazing and even without incarnates is very strong. So you can pick any incarnates you feel like.

 

I added in Cardiac Core and Reactive Radial and all the endurance troubles disappear and you end up with even more -res. 

 

Melee Radial will soft cap def and plug the hole in status protection. Clarion is an option as well.

 

The sky is the limit!! Take whatever incarnates seem right to you.

 

Below is the build I am currently using and absolutely loving!

 

 

Controller (Ice Control - Marine Affinity).mbd

[tidge]

I want to echo the good feels about Brine. It needs slotted Accuracy of course. I had planned to only 2-slot this, but I am thinking I'll have to see what the global Accuracy/ToHit/Recharge looks like on the final build before I settle on in what it is slotted with at level 50.

[Frosticus]

I spam brine. It is part of my single target attack chain.

 

My ill/marine is taking down pylons and lvl 54 AV's within a few percentage points slower than my ill/cold.

/cold is probably the better team set, but /marine is no slouch. Given the stark difference in my personal survival and overall ability to deal with full spawns, I am quite happy with /marine.

[Tanked King Leo]

11 hours ago, tidge said:

I want to echo the good feels about Brine. It needs slotted Accuracy of course. I had planned to only 2-slot this, but I am thinking I'll have to see what the global Accuracy/ToHit/Recharge looks like on the final build before I settle on in what it is slotted with at level 50.

 

Brine as it sits without soul drain is 225% acc. with is around 260%. This feels good in game to me. 

[Tanked King Leo]

9 hours ago, Frosticus said:

I spam brine. It is part of my single target attack chain.

 

My ill/marine is taking down pylons and lvl 54 AV's within a few percentage points slower than my ill/cold.

/cold is probably the better team set, but /marine is no slouch. Given the stark difference in my personal survival and overall ability to deal with full spawns, I am quite happy with /marine.

That's awesome! I love ill/ but my only one is ill/rad

[VoidSpawn]

@Frosticus, after reviewing your Ill/Marine YouTube videos, I've decided to roll one up for the pursuit of my own solo fun. There's a whole lotta fun stuff going on in that video, and that makes me really want to explore it, as I've enjoyed experiencing several of your other builds and your unique tri-Ill/Cold configuration. 

 

While I might be able to back-engineer the majority of your build based upon what I'm seeing in the video, and based upon some of your other published builds (they all have a distinct Frosticus DNA to them), at your convenience please let me know if/when/where you post one of your Ill/Marine builds. That would be the figurative icing on the cake. 

 

Thank you so much for mastering the solo experience, Frosty. It's inspiring to those of us who think similarly. 

 

@VoidSpawn 

[Frosticus]

It's a really nice combo. Feels much better balanced than ill/cold to me. 

 

This is what I've been running.

Controller (Illusion Control - Marine AffinityScorp).mbd

[VoidSpawn]

Awesome! Thank you! 

[Meknomancer]

On 8/25/2024 at 6:29 PM, Frosticus said:

It's a really nice combo. Feels much better balanced than ill/cold to me. 

 

This is what I've been running.

Controller (Illusion Control - Marine AffinityScorp).mbd 41.93 kB · 19 downloads

 

Have you attempted any gm's yet? I have 0 incarnates on mine and just tried scrapyard and his hp didn't budge. As much as ill/marine is more relaxing to play than the /cold and just dawdles through mobs without taking any significant damage i'm not sure i consider it more balanced, it feels like both are quite far apart, one in terms of the buffs it provides and the other in terms of debuffs. It's odd that my mm's running /marine stomp all over anything and everything so possibly its just the lack of incarnates, but even they feel slower dps'wise than the /cold mm's. 

 

If /marine had any sort of -regen in the set i'd 100% agree with you. Although i suspect that would make it the most op set in the game.

Edited August 30 by Meknomancer

[Frosticus]

No, haven't tackled any gms yet, but it goes thru lvl 54 AVs just as easily as my ill/cold. The dps is there for most GMs, but it won't be like a hot knife thru butter like ill/cold.

 

By balanced I mean that my ill/cold is unbelievable against a small number of enemies. But is very weak against full spawns. 10/10 vs single targets, but 2/10 against groups.

 

Ill/Marine is 9.9 vs single targets and like 8/10 vs groups.

 

I'm gonna upload the Apex TF -Battle Maiden fight at +4x8 later. That's something my ill/cold could never do without inspirations.

[Meknomancer]

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

No, haven't tackled any gms yet, but it goes thru lvl 54 AVs just as easily as my ill/cold. The dps is there for most GMs, but it won't be like a hot knife thru butter like ill/cold.

 

By balanced I mean that my ill/cold is unbelievable against a small number of enemies. But is very weak against full spawns. 10/10 vs single targets, but 2/10 against groups.

 

Ill/Marine is 9.9 vs single targets and like 8/10 vs groups.

 

I'm gonna upload the Apex TF -Battle Maiden fight at +4x8 later. That's something my ill/cold could never do without inspirations.

 

Whitecap does make a difference vs mobs although i'm finding it strange watching the damage fire off before the animation starts and never knowing if it'll hit 1 target or half the mob or nothing if the target dies as i click it. Watched the Renault vid. I forgot to check if its hitting the eye or if whitecap treats it like the itf computer and refuses. If so how are you getting PA up without it assuming you rely on the ff+rech. The only way i could get PA was to slot in ways i didn't find fun like a full armageddon set in whitecap/ full hold set in the st hold. Are you really running with such a huge downtime gap on it and covering the hole with force feedbacks?

[Frosticus]

I have ~93% global rech. But most fights you get good shifting tide buffs which is up to another 20%

 

I have ffback in whitecap and spam it pretty regularly. PA is often up just before they expire.

 

I have to assume whitecap is bugged. They didn't code it the same as savage leap for whatever reasons. It is often annoying toggling thru targets as you point out.

 

I was able to execute whitecap vs leviathan eye, but it is annoying when you can't get it to fire.