Humble request: please improve Ice Blast for Sentinels

[taigakirdape]

I have a Ice Blast sentinel in the mid-20's.  It gets played about every three months because it takes about that long for me to forget just how painful it is to play.

 

The problem is the attack cooldown and rotation. Ice Blast is painfully slow to use, you are constantly waiting for your attacks to be available again.  (I do have Hasten but I don't have it tricked out with maximum recharge IOs)

 

The only way I can effectively level is to find a team to carry my frozen butt, solo play is very slow and painful.

If a future page can improve this recharge time for Sentinels, I'd be grateful.  In the meantime...I'll stick to other sentinels I enjoy more.

[skoryy]

1 hour ago, taigakirdape said:

The problem is the attack cooldown and rotation. Ice Blast is painfully slow to use, you are constantly waiting for your attacks to be available again. 

 

Ice Bolt - 3s rech

Ice Blast - 6s rech

Chilling Ray - 8s rech

 

Am I missing something? You're not getting your level 50 rotation running in the mid-20s.

[FupDup]

The main issue is that Chilling Ray has a 63.9% DPA loss compared to Freeze Ray on Blaster, and for reference most Sent attacks only have a 2.5% loss. It also has an inferior mezz effect with no proc slotting choices. 

[Max Firepower]

Yeah, that's one of my gripes as well. 

 

Dark Blast gets the hold - didn't have it in the Blaster set.

Ice Blast loses the fast hold, and only keeps the 2.67s slow-ass hold.  I understand one hold for Sents, but why put it on the skippably-slow one vs the shorter animation one?

 

I find Ice Blast is still pretty zippy, tbh.  

Ice Blast, Chilling Ray, probably Arcane Bolt/Sorcery, Bitter Ice Blast, and Frost Breath would be my attacks my low 20's.  They don't rotate too badly.

 

I'd wonder how the OP's attacks are slotted.  Sometimes I've needed to respec and streamline some sets to fit with what I have and not get all the stuff I want until later, when I have more slots available.

[taigakirdape]

On 8/7/2025 at 9:43 AM, skoryy said:

 

Ice Bolt - 3s rech

Ice Blast - 6s rech

Chilling Ray - 8s rech

 

Am I missing something? You're not getting your level 50 rotation running in the mid-20s.

Maybe I'm missing something!
Like...Ice bolt and chilling ray.

I skipped those for ice blast, frost breath and bitter ice blast.  So maybe I picked the wrong powers, I am just 27 now.

Slotting is just Invention enh, 1 accuracy, 2 damage.  Bitter ice blast has two Sent ATOs and the rest I put in my ice armor powers.

[Luminara]

On 8/7/2025 at 4:57 PM, FupDup said:

The main issue is that Chilling Ray has a 63.9% DPA loss compared to Freeze Ray on Blaster, and for reference most Sent attacks only have a 2.5% loss. It also has an inferior mezz effect with no proc slotting choices. 

 

It also screws up the streak breaker.  The Sleep being auto-hit causes the streak breaker to reset its check.  You can miss on the previous attack, use Chilling Ray, and only the auto-hit will be checked, so the damage portion can miss...

 

And then the next attack can miss, too, because the streak breaker sees the previous auto-hit and doesn't kick in.

 

My Ice/Willpower sentinel was my favorite character prior to the auto-hit Sleep bullshit that fucked up Chilling Ray.  Now it's just a frustration.

[Heatstroke]

Improve Ice ARMOR for Sentinels.. yeah...