Hiya,
nice to see another one planning an Ice/Cold. I currently have a lvl40 Ice/Cold myself.
Ice and cold fit really well together. There's one problem with the combination though.
Cold has so many good powers and almost all of them need a decent amount of slots, so
like you already found out you run out of slots really fast.
Here are some of my personal opinions:
*) Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Bitter Ice Blast: slot 2 Acc, 3 Dmg, 1 EndRdx (or Recharge)
Ice has very powerful and fast activating attacks, best defense is a dead mob.
I wouldn't skip on Dmg. If you plan on tagging a mob with Infrigidate first you can
probably take out an acc because of the very good def debuff although 1 acc is probably
too little for PvP uses. I suggest End Redux because of the huge amount of end Ice/Cold
uses. I have Hasten as well so that doesn't help either. The only time you won't be hurting
for end is when you have have Heat Loss up.
*) Freeze Ray: 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge
It's one of the best powers in the set, make good use of it.
*) Ice Shield: 3 DefBuf
It doesn't need any End Redux.
*) Glacial Shield: skip it
Actually I'd take it if I could but the other powers are so much better that Glacial
Shield is the first to go.
*) Frostwork: slot 1 Heal
Personally I'd slot this with 1 Heal and leave it at that until you hit 40+. It's a great power
and would love to put more slots in it but you're gonna be hurting for slots enough for now. I've
never had problems with it with only 1 slot. Might be different when PvP'ing in a team though.
*) Bitter Freeze Ray: skip it
Some ppl love this power, for some it's annoying. I belong to the last group. It's not a bad power
but very situational. What makes it suck is the very long activation time. It's good as an opener
combined with Freeze Ray on a boss but that's about it. As an Ice/Cold you can slow/cripple bosses
so much that you can usually stack Freeze Ray without problems.
*) Benumb: slot 2 Acc, 3 Rechg for PvP uses, 2 Acc for PvE
I'd love to slot up Benumb with the extra 3 recharges myself but to me it just isn't worth it right now.
I'll slot it after 40. This is an amazing power for PvP but I only use it for Heroes/Av's and some very
tough bosses in PvE.
*) Arctic fog: slot 2 End Rdx, 3 DmgRes
You'll want it up all the time. The resistance and stealth components are very good. I use super speed
myself for travel and ss + arctic fog = invisible in PvE.
*) Ice Storm: 3 Dmg, 3 Recharge
Ice Storm, what can I say. Take it, slot it, love it. DON'T skip it unless you only PvP! It does even more
dmg than Bitter Ice Blast and combined with Sleet, Heat Loss and Blizzard later on it's nuts. Normally I'd
advise to put at least 1 Acc in Ice Storm but I already have Def Debuff in Sleet and in I7 Aim is going to
help a lot.
*) Sleet: 3 Recharge, 2 DefDebuff, 1 Slow or a combination of those. See what you like best.
Sleet, now that's the power you're going to be waiting for as an Ice/Cold. Once you get it nothing will be
the same. Combine sleet with Ice Storm and Blizzard (and later Heat Loss) and it's nasty, VERY nasty!
I recommend slotting the same amount of recharges as in Ice Storm since they have the same base time and you
always want to cast them both. You're going to love the resistance debuff of sleet.
*) Heat Loss: 3 Recharge, 3 EndMod
Well, what can I say other than that this power rocks! The base timer on it is nuts though. Same as Blizzard.
But when it's running you'll be in heaven. Hit 3-4 mobs with it and it's virtually impossible to get your end
bar to drop for 90 seconds I believe. And combine it with Sleet and the mobs will have about 60% res debuff on
them. Makes them drop like flies. Your teammates are going to love it too.
I'd pick Aim and Ice Storm instead of BFR and Glacial Shield. Aim is really going to help Ice/Cold in I7 since
it will affect Sleet, Ice Storm and Blizzard which means you'll deal quite a bit more damage.
I know you said you're mainly like the support role but Ice/Cold at high level is capable of an amazing amount
of damage. I can cast Sleet + Ice Storm every mob. Sleet means 30% -res, some -def, slow and mobs falling on their
face. Throw in snowstorm as well and they won't be moving much at all. You'll actually need more support yourself
than others do since you'll draw a huge amount of agro. But hey......it's a load of fun!
Hope this helps you a bit. Just fiddle with the build and have fun. It's a great combo to play. If you're on
Defiant give Heatloss a yell. I'll show you how my build works.
Good luck!
Addiction
