Ice/Storm build help

[ThePhlebotomist]

Hi!

 

I have an Ice/Storm controller that I like quite a lot but I'm a bit confused about a few things and could use some help! I have the non-purple sets in the attached build so far and she generally seems to do great in terms of keeping groups occupied and debuffed -- Freezing Rain is up most of the time and I have many control options.

 

What do you think of the build?

 

Some specific questions:

 

1. Mids Reborn makes it look like Ice Slick and Freezing Rain should do a lot of damage, but posts on the forums and the in-game Detailed information seem to suggest not. Should I avoid slotting them as damaging powers entirely? Wouldn't Containment still make them pretty good for contributing damage in a large area?
2. I've seeing conflicting advice about whether to use damage procs (like Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage) in powers like Ice Slick, Freezing Rain, and Ice Storm. Something about pseudo-pet powers and procs I think. Do they not work well?

 

Thanks!

 

2025 HC Ruby Rime 3 - Controller (Ice Control - Storm Summoning).mbd

[Wimbochismo]

I'll try to give a quick breakdown as I'm falling asleep.

 

On 1/25/2025 at 6:25 PM, ThePhlebotomist said:

• Mids Reborn makes it look like Ice Slick and Freezing Rain should do a lot of damage, but posts on the forums and the in-game Detailed information seem to suggest not. Should I avoid slotting them as damaging powers entirely? Wouldn't Containment still make them pretty good for contributing damage in a large area?

 

Mids is calculating the dmg over its full duration for those powers which is like 30s or something - not realistic. They don't do a ton of dmg but if you have the slots its nice to slap a 5 or 6 set in for the bonuses. Ice Slick also requires additional accuracy for its dmg so it's a nice spot for a set. You mainly want these types of powers for their secondary effects. Ice Slick is great for knockdown soft cc and Freezing Rain for the -res.

 

Do note that some of these powers do not benefit from Containment. Those powers being Ice Slick, Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Lightning Storm. Ice Storm from Ice Mastery does benefit from Containment, but only half dmg. 

 

On 1/25/2025 at 6:25 PM, ThePhlebotomist said:

I've seeing conflicting advice about whether to use damage procs (like Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage) in powers like Ice Slick, Freezing Rain, and Ice Storm. Something about pseudo-pet powers and procs I think. Do they not work well?

 

This is true. In most cases pseudo-pets don't have a great chance for procs. Sometimes on activation there's good chances - this varies by power and I don't know the details in this case. They mostly have a chance to check every 10s and depending on other factors it usually isn't amazing %'s. Of these powers I would slot Freezing Rain with 1-2 recharge reduction for max -res. Ice Slick with a 5-6 dmg set for bonuses. Ice Storm with a 5-6 dmg set.

 

Quick build breakdown:

• In general your end management is very low. You have a focus on aoe defense and layered defense which is great.
• Hover and Maneuver's need 1-2 more slots each for end reduction/def if you want to use them.
• You could possibly pull slots from Glacier.
• Do 2 slots for recharge reduction in Freezing Rain.
• Snow Storm is doing nothing that other powers can't do better. Probably drop this for Arctic Air. You definitely want Arctic Air.
• Thunder Clap is only mag 2 stun and you have nothing to stack it with higher. The mitigation provided by Cold Snap mag 3 fear is arguably better.
• Switch Victory Rush for Vengeance or Evasive for your 5th LotG.
• Slotting recharge in Block of Ice is killing its proc chances. I usually do 1 Glad Javelin acc/dmg + 5 procs.
• You're missing Reactive Defenses resistance unique, esp if you're not running Tough.
• Add Prev Med absorb proc to O2 Boost.
• If possible an extra slot to Health and Stamina for Miracle unique and 50+5 endmod would probably help end management.

Edited Monday at 05:30 AM by Wimbochismo

[Carnifax]

Honestly that's a VERY expensive build which doesn't give you a lot for the expense. As Wimbo says the power choices are a little strange too, Snow Storm & Thunder Clap aren't really needed (nor is Gale)

 

Personally I'd go with something like this. It is essentially a blend of my Plant / Storm / Mu and my Ice / Traps / Earth.

 

Mu rather than Ice epic but you can swap those as you like. No need for Ice Bolt I feel, Arcane has more punch to it. This will be far cheaper because it doesn't use Winters Sets.

 

Winters Sets cost WAY more than Purples, FYI. Even this has more Purples than I'd usually use. For cheaper version

 

Swap Ball Lightning purples for Posi, Annihilation, Bombardment or Artillery

Swap Arctic Air to use Malaise instead of purple set

Swap Arcane to use whatever set you like, or 3 Thunderstike, some other random Acc/Dam and the Apoc proc + 1 other proc. 

 

Ice - Storm - Mu.mbd

[ThePhlebotomist]

Thank you both for the tips!!

 

12 hours ago, Wimbochismo said:

Do note that some of these powers do not benefit from Containment. Those powers being Ice Slick, Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Lightning Storm. Ice Storm from Ice Mastery does benefit from Containment, but only half dmg. 

 

Doh! I'd been hoping Frostbite some of those would really help out on the damage side. Ah well, they're still great.

 

12 hours ago, Wimbochismo said:

Quick build breakdown:

• In general your end management is very low. You have a focus on aoe defense and layered defense which is great.

 

Yeah I was using Victory Rush to try to overcome some of that -- I noticed the end drain was significant!

 

12 hours ago, Wimbochismo said:

• Hover and Maneuver's need 1-2 more slots each for end reduction/def if you want to use them.
• You could possibly pull slots from Glacier.
• Do 2 slots for recharge reduction in Freezing Rain.
• Snow Storm is doing nothing that other powers can't do better. Probably drop this for Arctic Air. You definitely want Arctic Air.

 

Can you tell me a bit more about Arctic Air?

 

Back on live, my recollection of the conventional wisdom was that

1. Arctic Air wasn't worth it -- its end drain was massive, you needed to be in the fight, and it caused foes to scatter which most teams didn't want
2. Snow Storm was better than Arctic Air or Cold Snap (though I think it was called something else maybe?) since it had similar slow effects at range with no accuracy check or foe scatter

I briefly tried Cold Snap but its accuracy looks so low in Mids I went back to Snow Storm. I haven't actually tried Arctic Air on Homecoming, though!

 

5 hours ago, Carnifax said:

Honestly that's a VERY expensive build which doesn't give you a lot for the expense. As Wimbo says the power choices are a little strange too, Snow Storm & Thunder Clap aren't really needed (nor is Gale)

 

Personally I'd go with something like this. It is essentially a blend of my Plant / Storm / Mu and my Ice / Traps / Earth.

 

Mu rather than Ice epic but you can swap those as you like. No need for Ice Bolt I feel, Arcane has more punch to it. This will be far cheaper because it doesn't use Winters Sets.

 

Thanks for the build! Very cool. Yeah the cost was indeed quite oppressive but I figured I'd slowly get there as I do like playing the character a lot!

 

 

[Carnifax]

Cold Snap used to be just a Slow (it was indeed something else before, can't remember what). Now it's Slow + Terrorized (stand still shaking unless someone attacks you). So anything Terrorized + Arctic Aired will stand there frightened, then get confused unless attacked. Cold Snapped + Ice Slicked mobs probably aren't getting far away from Arctic, even doggos. 

 

Arctic is indeed a bit of an End hog. It's one reason for Mu, power sink is up much quicker than other Epic End recovery tools available to Controllers (Consume and Dark Consumption). Storm is also a bit of an End hog. Hibernate isn't bad as a Combat Rest though to recover End. 

 

Note you can stick a Miracle into O2 Boost and as long as you remember to recast on Jack every min give yourself an extra 20% recovery (base Stamina basically).

 

By the way the reason for the Forced Feedbacks in Tornado + Lightning is they should give you 100% recharge for 5 seconds pretty much every time you drop one. It's got a 10 second grace period after casting but you can still get a nice lot of +recharge from them. 

 

 

Edited Monday at 07:15 PM by Carnifax

[Uun]

40 minutes ago, ThePhlebotomist said:

Can you tell me a bit more about Arctic Air?

 

Back on live, my recollection of the conventional wisdom was that

1. Arctic Air wasn't worth it -- its end drain was massive, you needed to be in the fight, and it caused foes to scatter which most teams didn't want
2. Snow Storm was better than Arctic Air or Cold Snap (though I think it was called something else maybe?) since it had similar slow effects at range with no accuracy check or foe scatter

I briefly tried Cold Snap but its accuracy looks so low in Mids I went back to Snow Storm. I haven't actually tried Arctic Air on Homecoming, though!

 

Arctic Air is quite good, although it does use a lot of endurance. It has 3 effects, each of which are applied (or have a chance to be applied) every 2s. Because it doesn't require accuracy or recharge, it can effectively be frankenslotted with 2-3 confuse/endred IOs. Increasing the confuse duration improves the odds of foes in the AoE staying confused if a tick misses. Adding a slow IO will make it more difficult for foes to run out of the AoE.

1. 100% chance of 81.25% -speed / 62.5% -recharge (better than Snow Storm)
2. 30% chance of mag 3 confuse plus 20% chance of additional mag 1 confuse
3. 50% chance of Afraid (this is what makes foes run)

Snow Storm is 62.5% -speed / 62.5% -recharge and also has a hefty endurance cost (although half that of Arctic Air). Cold Snap is 82.5% -speed / 82.5% -recharge plus an 18s mag 3 fear. It doesn't have an accuracy penalty but isn't auto-hit. I consider Cold Snap much better than Snow Storm.

[Wimbochismo]

4 hours ago, ThePhlebotomist said:

Can you tell me a bit more about Arctic Air?

 

Back on live, my recollection of the conventional wisdom was that

1. Arctic Air wasn't worth it -- its end drain was massive, you needed to be in the fight, and it caused foes to scatter which most teams didn't want
2. Snow Storm was better than Arctic Air or Cold Snap (though I think it was called something else maybe?) since it had similar slow effects at range with no accuracy check or foe scatter

I briefly tried Cold Snap but its accuracy looks so low in Mids I went back to Snow Storm. I haven't actually tried Arctic Air on Homecoming, though!

 

Others have already chimed in with more detailed numbers so I'll just summarize.

 

The Ice Control rework pretty much made the whole set of cc much better. It may take a second to ramp up but Arctic Air alone is practically viable to lockdown a whole spawn. At least on my Dom, AA is almost the only form of cc I even need to be in melee. With the confuse, fear, and knockdown - enemies won't be doing much of anything. Ice Slick and Cold Snap also recharge quickly for soft cc.