Ice Melee or Savage Melee

[ccrob00]

I have a good concept for my next toon and I've been debating on those two melee sets. I haven't tried either of them and they both look solid. I am going to be pairing it with either Ice Armor or Super Reflexes. What are the pros and cons for each set?

[Griffin]

I have read that ice is not a good melee set. I personally really like sets that give you something to manage in addition to your powers, so I would say savage even though I have not played it. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on these forums I would check reddit - I usually peruse both to see what I can find.

[Solarverse]

Ice has always been the weakest melee damage in game...unless of course it is being used by Outcast. Honestly, it needs a damage buff, however it will probably never see one since the set never has seen one other than the tier 9.

 

If damage is what you are after, I wouldn't go with Ice if I were you.

[tricon]

From playing a Ice/Shield Stalker:

 

I would say Ice is not even that bad but it has maybe a few issues that makes it look worse as it is.

 

The -res on Frozen Fists is a lie or simple a text error from porting this set over from the Tanker AT. Since the introduced in Issues 18 for Tanker a new Inherent: Bruising that would add -res effect for the Tier 1 powers. We are not tanks so we don't get it.

 

Frost is your standard cone dmg with a 90° arc that needs target aoe IO sets but has a lower range of a melee attack. It

would make more sense to give it access to a melee pbaoe set or to increase the range a bit. On the other hand you can use another purple IO set if you pickup e.g. Cross Punch for the melee pbaoe version.

 

Ice Sword is pretty much standard like Build Up is.

 

We got as Stalkers the Assassin's Ice Sword and not Greater Ice Sword. Honestly I would prefer the traded Ice Patch for it. Does lethal dmg and is a bit more resisted then cold.

 

I have not used Placete since we got out hide proc from our ATO set.

 

Ice Patch is for a Stalker a bad choice from the Tanker set (copy&paste) It would be better if we got another high dmg attack or some other kind of utility. Not used

 

Freezing Touch is your heavy hitter, a superb attack. High dpa attack, can slot 2 purple procs dmg or 1 purple and the absorb proc from entomb. The only reason people don't like it because of the dot damage. If you hit somebody with Total Focus you see how hard you hit it, by FT you need to wait a little bit, so it can go... hm will this kill it, yeah oh wait it has 2 hps left....

 

Frozen Aura is your lvl 32 Foot Stomp dmg version from the Tanker set that will sleep minions and can take a +heal proc if you wish

 

So this is why Ice looks a bit wired, dots and a utility power we don't really need as a offensiv AT. There is a dps sheet over from Kaeladin in the scrapper forum https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1av2vWL9UVgGw183BbjFNweJze7N5P3Tn8tYSppdFQgE/edit?usp=sharing and Ice dosen't look that bad

 

The substitue of Cross Punch from the fighting pool is not a bad idea for ice that can take a pvp -res proc and the +recharge proc.

 

After playing through the content a bit, it's still fresh. I found it is not that bad. My Rad/Ice Stalker certainly hits harder from the primary power set but that was a reason I picked up */shield. Add in the extra area dmg from shield charge and +dmg from AAO it feels a lot more dynamic. I would use Ice Melee with /Bio or /Shield that can boost the dmg a bit.

 

Oh and don't underestimate the endurance lose it can cause if you go all out. The pay2win vendor offers a recovery temp power that will increase the recovery and help you through the early lvls if you can spare the 50k inf for it.