Frost's I6 Ice/Empathy and Kinetics Guide
By
darminiam,
Posted on: 2005-11-02 16:27 in Player Guides
Master Bing (Ice/Ice Dom) made 28 last night, and I had a very tough choice between a damaging attack (Frost Bite, I think) and Artic Air. I really have stuck to keeping MB out of melee when possible, but found that in playing solo, it was very hard to do so successfully. Finally decided that I could bump the damage on my existing attacks, and went with AA.
What a difference it made in two solo missions this morning! AA is an end hog, but really made the 3-4 mobs at a time doable without Domination.
Of course, I should have listened to Frost and taken AA earlier. Still, I have no regrets now. I can just imagine the dynamics of AA with Jack. Wow!
I now return you to the sage wisdom of Frost 
Hopefully you can get some slots into it to reduce the endurance cost and maybe some confusion. It really starts to shine with slotting.
Unfortunetly, in larger groups you tend to draw some aggro, so keeping a few green inspirations for emergiences is recommended
Thanks Frost. Hell Ice is my first ranged toon and I took it because of you and all the battles you made easier with Ice slick. anyway I have some work to do to fix him up. Now if i can only do a successful COV respect I can fix him right up. on the Plus side at lvl 18 hes not that badly gimped.
Thanks for the guide
Frost, have you considered making an icy assault guide for dominators, in addition to your EXECELLENT ice control/empathy/kinetics guide?
Personally, I think ice slick, AA, and ice sword circle would be one MEAN combo... but I may be misguided 
At this point I'm not planning on an icy assault specific guide. I enjoy my Ice/Ice Dominator, but not really enough to take the time to sit down and write something up.
Ice Slick+AA+ISC would be a good combo though...asuming they ever lower the animation time of the AoE sword attacks. Haven't heard much about that recently though, so maybe they've already done something.
Very informative Read, thanks a bunch. I especially like the way you take new information into account, and actually change your opinion on some powers/slotting. I think it's a sign of a good guide when the writer isn't trying to force their previous opinions to 'fit' with the new changes.
Well done, Frost. Thanks.
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question
It seems like you are very knowledgeable about the Ice primary, and I rolled one last night. I have friend that I will duo with up to level 32(I am not taking any attacks until then). I am going to be Ice/Storm/Ice for concept and fun reasons(I will post my build below). You said you mainly like to support your team, but I am mainly a solo guy(duo sometimes). I am wondering if post-32 and pet slottage if an Ice/Storm will be an effective soloer. Also, I know you said you didnt PvP much, but you have to know something about Ice's capabilities. I will want to group PvP, but most of the time I will want to arena 1 vs 1 duel. I am thinking with all my slows, Jack Frost, Ice Blast, all Storm damage/soft control, will I be able to duel 1v1 duels effectively?
Build:
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Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Ice Storm Ice Cont
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Ice Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
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01) --> Block of Ice==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Hold(3) Hold(11) Hold(15) Rechg(15)
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1) Acc(5)
02) --> O2 Boost==> EndRdx(2)
04) --> Snow Storm==> EndRdx(4) EndRdx(5) Slow(19) Slow(19)
06) --> Arctic Air==> EndRdx(6) EndRdx(7) EndRdx(7) ConfDur(9) ConfDur(9) ConfDur(11)
08) --> Recall Friend==> EndRdx(8)
10) --> Hurdle==> Jump(10)
12) --> Ice Slick==> Rechg(12) Rechg(13) Rechg(13)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14) EndRdx(45) Range(45) Range(45) Range(50)
16) --> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(16) Rechg(17) Rechg(17)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18) Heal(50) Heal(50)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --> Hurricane==> EndRdx(22) EndRdx(23) TH_DeBuf(23) TH_DeBuf(25) TH_DeBuf(25)
24) --> Aid Other==> Heal(24)
26) --> Glacier==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Hold(27) Hold(29) Rechg(40) Rechg(43)
28) --> Aid Self==> IntRdx(28) IntRdx(29) IntRdx(31) Heal(31) Heal(34) Heal(37)
30) --> Steamy Mist==> EndRdx(30) EndRdx(31) DmgRes(46) DmgRes(46) DmgRes(46)
32) --> Jack Frost==> Acc(32) Acc(33) Hold(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34) Dmg(34)
35) --> Tornado==> Rechg(35) Rechg(36) Rechg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(37) Dmg(37)
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Rechg(38) Rechg(39) EndRdx(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(40) Dmg(40)
41) --> Ice Blast==> Acc(41) Acc(42) Dmg(42) Dmg(42) Dmg(43) Rechg(43)
44) --> Hibernate==> Rechg(44)
47) --> Frozen Armor==> EndRdx(47) DefBuf(48) DefBuf(48) DefBuf(48)
49) --> Hover==> EndRdx(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
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After 32, sure, soloing is no problem. You might not solo as fast as a scrapper or something, but you'll be able to solo.
As far as PvP and duels go...I'm the last person you want to ask. I've had my rear handed to me the few times I've done a dual by a Ice/Storm controller. The to-hit debuffing hurricane is (I know this from being on the recieving end of it) a real pain for your opponent. Slows are rough too. I think you could be quite sucessful. However, again, I don't know a heck of a lot about PvP.
The build looks good though.
TY for fast reply. The only thing I wish about my build was that I could get Steamy Mist faster, but I decided all the other abilities are more important. I am 6-slotting Artic Air by level 12 because I am going to put 6 DO endreds in it.
I read your guide as I have a 35 earth/empath and the more I watch ice, the more similar earth and ice kinda seem.
My only comment on your empath portion - I six slot Healing aura, 3 heals, 2 recharges and one end redux. Makes for very very short recharge and when I am in teams where I end up being the only healer (not my intent but happens all the time) this has saved the teams bacon many times...
I love the kinetic powerset, but I have to say I find the Earth/Empath one to be amazing. I can get my way onto a team for either role, play aggressively, not only heal my team mates but myself, and have enjoyed this alt more than any save my main. (you never forget your first love.)
I have also levelled this alt far faster than any other and have to go to playing my others because he constantly outlevels his peer friends and SG mates! (again not ice, but I think it applies based on similaritie.)
Go Stoni and Jack!
Hey Frost! You know I've been a fan of your advice for awhile, so I finally tried an Ice/Kin, at through level 10 it's been great - so much fun. But I've had some real endurance issues so far, and I think your guide has answered a lot of questions for me.
Being that I'm still so low, I'm questioning if I can survive on the current build and respec into something more sensible later, or just scrap and rebuild. Can you offer some insight? Here's what I have so far (uninformed version pre-reading your guide):
Hero Plan by Designer Hero
Program Version: 1.62
Data File Version: August 20, 2005
Designer Hero Home Page
Test build: Level 10 Controller
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool Set: Leaping
Hero Profile
Level 1: Chilblain -- Acc (A), Imob (3)
Level 1: Transfusion -- Acc (A), Heal (5)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty (A)
Level 2: Block of Ice -- Acc (A), Hold (3), Dmg (7)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty (A)
Level 4: Frostbite -- Acc (A), Imob (5), EndRdx (9)
Level 6: Siphon Power -- RechRdx (A), Acc (7), EndRdx (9)
Level 8: Arctic Air -- EndRdx (A)
Level 10: Jump Kick -- Acc (A)
Obviously I now see that taking both Chilblain and Frostbite was overkill, and that explains some of the endurance problems. Also I now see that more slots for endurance reduction in AA will help. As for Jump Kick, I wanted to go with the Leaping pool as a travel power, and JK actually fit my character concept.
Any advice would be appreciated, including, "Just start over!"
What you've got isn't bad by any means. It'll last until you can respec if you decide you want to at any rate 
Thing with frostbite is (as you realized) it uses a ton of endurance. So not using that quite as often will help.
Before 22 and SOs, AA can be hard to manage, even with heavy DO end reduction slotting. A lot easier with SOs though. It's a more situational power until you can get the endurance backbone to keep going with it.
I'd just make sure you get block of ice 6 slotted before SOs, take stamina (for arcitc air endurance support), ice slick at 12 and you should be set until you can respec. If you're enjoying it, as-is, no need to re-roll unless you really want to.
Sage advice as always. I think I'll keep at it. Definitely workable right now, but I'll be running that lvl 24 respec mish for sure.
Ack..I just read through this again and noticed my AoE cap information for Fulcrum shift is off. It's a maximum of 10, not 16. Not a major thing, in the long run...but I hate having the misinformation out there.
I've got a decent list of corrections I need to make, mostly to specific numbers. Just a warning...take any hard number you read in here with a grain of salt (espically AoE cap numbers, most everything else is OK) please
Thanks for the comments
And yeah, the powers you pick and how you slot them depend a lot on your archetype too. This was written with a controller in mind, so if you're making a defender or a corruptor, you'll build and select tings a little different.