Hello again everyone. Time for version 2 of my slightly well thought out ice fire build. Keep in mind that this is all in the perspective of someone with non stop scrapper lock, so if you fear debt at all, don't read below.
Why Ice Control? Ice doesn't do a ton of damage, nor does it have a lot of hard control like mind. It is however a jack of all trades control set and in my opinion has one the best overall value for powers (very few powers I deem as easily skippable). The best cross comparison power set in my mind would be plant as it has many different kinds of soft controls.
Why firey assualt with Ice control? Concept? Who knows. The additional damage that fire gives you (primarily from fiery embrace) combined with the fast recharge times of the powers more than makes up for the lack of damage in the primary.
Heres my rundown of the powers and OPTIMAL slotting for each (this will not match my build exactly)
chillbain: The first ice power. Does ok damage, and does immobilization. I no longer have it, if I needed another single target attack in my attack chain I would use it. Some folks talk about the need for use on bosses, but in my opinion two applications of BOI work just as well. This power does have great uses in PVP against some melee types and also has an ok slow component Slots: 1 Acc, 2-3 Dmg, 1-2 immob
Block of Ice (BOI): Single target hold, moderate damage, accuracy bonus. Take this power as soon as possible. Thing of this like your armor while soloing and in small groups. By the time you hit lvl 30 and have hasten you should be able to lock down at least 5 minions and or lts.
Frostbite: Terrible, just terrible. If you are new to dominators this would seem tempting as it is aoe damage, but the damage is negligible. It also has an accuracy penalty. Never open a fight with an aoe immob.. This power is extremely skippable. If you need an immobolize go with the single target one. (no slotting advice, DON'T TAKE IT!)
Arctic Air: This power should not be skipped, but it is absolute endurance hog. It has a slow component, a confuse component and a semi fear component (mobs want out of the radius of the power). All of these combined make an excellent damage mitigation tool for yourself and anyone else in melee with your. With 3 end modifiers and 3 slotted double green stamina I am still having stamina problems (which could probably be solved with consume). Its not easy to skip until 24 when you get your first respec. For PVE slot it 3 confuse 3 end mods. For PVP I would go 2 confuse 1 slow and 3 end mods.
Shiver: Cone slow. Medium recharge. I so love this power. I don't use it a lot while soloing but when fighting very high level mobs in large groups its fantastic. This power cannot be skipped if you are going to pvp at all. This power is the absolute bane to all scrappers and tanks. Slot this with 2 acc and 2-3 slows
Ice Slick: Yay everyone will love you for this power. When you are looking for teams let folks know you have ice patch and they'll be more likely to pick ya up. Its got a big old radius and knocks folks down. They can still attack you though, just not as much. The best part about this power is being able to hide behind a wall and move the targetted aoe circle around the corner, that way you don't take the alpha. Slot it for 3 recharges.
Flash Freeze: A targetted sleep with minor damage. A great power for soloing if you are willing to invest slots in it. A meh power for grouping, as attacks on slept enemies will wake them up. The minor damage is a pain as all it does is aggro those it doesn't sleep. 3 ACC's 3 SLEEP durations at least for this power, if you are going to take it.
Glacier: Yay you've made it. Ice gets its AOE hold later than most builds. That makes it a little tricky to slot. Being a dominator the hold time is short, and the recharge is slow. You have to activate this power on the ground near the enemies (it is a PBAOE). I wouldnt skip the power though, its a great OH CRAP button. I have it slotted 2 ACC 3 HOLD 1 Recharge.
Jack Frost: Oh boy a pet! Jack does a little bit of everything, and nothing when you need it! He has an ice blast, chilling embrace (a small pbaoe slow), freezing touch (a melee hold with a damage ticker), Ice sword and Greater Ice Sword. Slotting I stick with 1 acc 3 damage. Anything else is typically overkill. Jack is not a tank. Do not expect Jack to tank. Expect him to work like an ice blaster that your 5 year old cousin is playing. He does however really boost your damage by the time you hit 32 (AND BOY DID YOU NEED IT).
Slot him 2 acc and 3 damage. He doesn't hold very often and his hold usually has a very long duration anyway. It is not really worth slotting.
Fire Assault
Flares: Wow what a crummy power. It takes forever to activate and does minor damage. Keep this in your attack chain early on, and remove it when you get fire blast. Do not add additional slots. I'd give it one Acc. Good for building domination early.
Incinerate: Get it love it use it. It may not look like its doing much, but those are 10 slow ticking numbers over your enemies head. It does high damage and goes off very fast and recharges pretty fast. This is your first PVP toggle dropper. 2 acc 3 damage here. You could get away with 1 acc for PVE only.
Fire Breath: If you skip chillbain you have to take this power (or frostbite), meh. Its a narrow cone does 3 ticks for medium damage. If you can get enemies lined up right it can do so some good damage. Adding range will make it longer. I stick with 2 acc 3 damage. It uses a lot of endurance. Its recharge is pretty slow.
Fire Blast: Pretty good medium damage ranged power. I spam it as much as possible at early levels. It has good distance and has ok accuracy. Doesn't use a lot of endurance and recharges pretty fast. Once you get blaze you will many use this as a pulling tool or to hit runners when BOI isn't up. 1 Acc 3 Damage.
Fiery Embrace: This makes your other fire attacks shine (and increases the damage on your ice powers as well). It has about a 30 second timer where it increases your fire damage, as well as a 10 second timer (maybe 5) where it increases your other damage. This + Domination makes for all sorts of fun. Slot this for three recharge.
Combustion: PABOE medium damage. Does ok damage. The animation time is longer than fire breath and does less damage than fire breath (in a slower amount of time too), it is PBAOE (which is useful if you melee a lot). This power is worth skipping. If you do take it 2 acc and 3 damage.
Consume: Minor Damage PBAOE. I miss this power. With hasten up most of the time and constantly running artic air I run out of endurance a lot. Its a pretty good utility power when you are low on blues. 2 acc and 3 recharge.
Blazing Bolt: Extreme Damage Snipe. It looks so cool. Most people hate their Dom Snipes, I wish I had mine back. Its a great opener after ice slick for a nasty LT. It is also very handy in pvp. It already has a good accuracy bonus, so if you get it slot it 1 acc, 3 damage, 2 interrupt decreases.
Blaze: High short ranged fire blast. It sounds sort of simple doesn't it? Well blaze unslotted does as much damage as a fully slotted fire blast. Slotted 3 damage you will do 170 damage at lvl 39 against an even level con. With Domination up and fiery embrace active you will do close to 300 per hit. The recharge seems to be medium, I would like it up more often. This really is a set defining power, it completes your attack chain and makes you a force to be reckoned with. At lvl 39 I am usually battling lvl 41 mobs so accuracy is important. Best slotting is 2 acc, 3 damage, 1 recharge.
Power Pools etc:
I went the Flight route because Air Superiority is great to use with Incinerate (fast medium damage) at early levels. I will soon be respeccing out of AS, and probably just take hover. Flight is ok but slow, 1 flight speed is good at high levels, at lower levels you will need 1 end reducer. The end consumption seems to scale as you increase your level.
I also have gone the Stamina route. Its hard to use Artic Air without it. It becomes pretty situational if you don't have stamina, its best to think of Artic Air as your armor.
I tried leadership, its worthless skip it if possible.
I also have hasten 3 slotted to recharge my holds and attacks as quickly as possible. I would not play a dominator (save mind as it has many single target mezzes) without hasten.
The key thing to remember about your dominator is to mitigate damage with BOI, Artic Air, and Ice patch, and attack as much as possible with your aoe and single target attacks.
I typically set incinerate or air superiority on auto so what ever Im close to I attack.
You will notice you play very differently solo than you do in a group. In a group you role is to get the soft controls out there, then once thats done, get on the outskirts of the control and build some domination. Your control will act as a great damage mitigation to the team. Be careful not to take too much aggro. Solo post lvl 26 you are a monster, use your single target attacks along with BOI and Artic Air as much as possible. Once you have Jack you are nearly unstoppable, you will be building domination faster than you ever beleived solo.
Finally at the highest level (post blaze) you are mostly unstoppable. I solo on relentless and its honestly mostly boring. The one thing to point out with this build is you will not build up domination as quickly as other builds. This is due to the amount of AOE controls (ice slick, AA, Shiver), and the 3 AOE fire attacks. I generally save my domination for the end of a mission rather than trying to build up 2-3 times as I would with mind/energy or grav/psi.
Hello again everyone. Time for version 2 of my slightly well thought out ice fire build. Keep in mind that this is all in the perspective of someone with non stop scrapper lock, so if you fear debt at all, don't read below.
Why Ice Control? Ice doesn't do a ton of damage, nor does it have a lot of hard control like mind. It is however a jack of all trades control set and in my opinion has one the best overall value for powers (very few powers I deem as easily skippable). The best cross comparison power set in my mind would be plant as it has many different kinds of soft controls.
Why firey assualt with Ice control? Concept? Who knows. The additional damage that fire gives you (primarily from fiery embrace) combined with the fast recharge times of the powers more than makes up for the lack of damage in the primary.
Heres my rundown of the powers and OPTIMAL slotting for each (this will not match my build exactly)
chillbain: The first ice power. Does ok damage, and does immobilization. I no longer have it, if I needed another single target attack in my attack chain I would use it. Some folks talk about the need for use on bosses, but in my opinion two applications of BOI work just as well. This power does have great uses in PVP against some melee types and also has an ok slow component Slots: 1 Acc, 2-3 Dmg, 1-2 immob
Block of Ice (BOI): Single target hold, moderate damage, accuracy bonus. Take this power as soon as possible. Thing of this like your armor while soloing and in small groups. By the time you hit lvl 30 and have hasten you should be able to lock down at least 5 minions and or lts.
Frostbite: Terrible, just terrible. If you are new to dominators this would seem tempting as it is aoe damage, but the damage is negligible. It also has an accuracy penalty. Never open a fight with an aoe immob.. This power is extremely skippable. If you need an immobolize go with the single target one. (no slotting advice, DON'T TAKE IT!)
Arctic Air: This power should not be skipped, but it is absolute endurance hog. It has a slow component, a confuse component and a semi fear component (mobs want out of the radius of the power). All of these combined make an excellent damage mitigation tool for yourself and anyone else in melee with your. With 3 end modifiers and 3 slotted double green stamina I am still having stamina problems (which could probably be solved with consume). Its not easy to skip until 24 when you get your first respec. For PVE slot it 3 confuse 3 end mods. For PVP I would go 2 confuse 1 slow and 3 end mods.
Shiver: Cone slow. Medium recharge. I so love this power. I don't use it a lot while soloing but when fighting very high level mobs in large groups its fantastic. This power cannot be skipped if you are going to pvp at all. This power is the absolute bane to all scrappers and tanks. Slot this with 2 acc and 2-3 slows
Ice Slick: Yay everyone will love you for this power. When you are looking for teams let folks know you have ice patch and they'll be more likely to pick ya up. Its got a big old radius and knocks folks down. They can still attack you though, just not as much. The best part about this power is being able to hide behind a wall and move the targetted aoe circle around the corner, that way you don't take the alpha. Slot it for 3 recharges.
Flash Freeze: A targetted sleep with minor damage. A great power for soloing if you are willing to invest slots in it. A meh power for grouping, as attacks on slept enemies will wake them up. The minor damage is a pain as all it does is aggro those it doesn't sleep. 3 ACC's 3 SLEEP durations at least for this power, if you are going to take it.
Glacier: Yay you've made it. Ice gets its AOE hold later than most builds. That makes it a little tricky to slot. Being a dominator the hold time is short, and the recharge is slow. You have to activate this power on the ground near the enemies (it is a PBAOE). I wouldnt skip the power though, its a great OH CRAP button. I have it slotted 2 ACC 3 HOLD 1 Recharge.
Jack Frost: Oh boy a pet! Jack does a little bit of everything, and nothing when you need it! He has an ice blast, chilling embrace (a small pbaoe slow), freezing touch (a melee hold with a damage ticker), Ice sword and Greater Ice Sword. Slotting I stick with 1 acc 3 damage. Anything else is typically overkill. Jack is not a tank. Do not expect Jack to tank. Expect him to work like an ice blaster that your 5 year old cousin is playing. He does however really boost your damage by the time you hit 32 (AND BOY DID YOU NEED IT).
Slot him 2 acc and 3 damage. He doesn't hold very often and his hold usually has a very long duration anyway. It is not really worth slotting.
Fire Assault
Flares: Wow what a crummy power. It takes forever to activate and does minor damage. Keep this in your attack chain early on, and remove it when you get fire blast. Do not add additional slots. I'd give it one Acc. Good for building domination early.
Incinerate: Get it love it use it. It may not look like its doing much, but those are 10 slow ticking numbers over your enemies head. It does high damage and goes off very fast and recharges pretty fast. This is your first PVP toggle dropper. 2 acc 3 damage here. You could get away with 1 acc for PVE only.
Fire Breath: If you skip chillbain you have to take this power (or frostbite), meh. Its a narrow cone does 3 ticks for medium damage. If you can get enemies lined up right it can do so some good damage. Adding range will make it longer. I stick with 2 acc 3 damage. It uses a lot of endurance. Its recharge is pretty slow.
Fire Blast: Pretty good medium damage ranged power. I spam it as much as possible at early levels. It has good distance and has ok accuracy. Doesn't use a lot of endurance and recharges pretty fast. Once you get blaze you will many use this as a pulling tool or to hit runners when BOI isn't up. 1 Acc 3 Damage.
Fiery Embrace: This makes your other fire attacks shine (and increases the damage on your ice powers as well). It has about a 30 second timer where it increases your fire damage, as well as a 10 second timer (maybe 5) where it increases your other damage. This + Domination makes for all sorts of fun. Slot this for three recharge.
Combustion: PABOE medium damage. Does ok damage. The animation time is longer than fire breath and does less damage than fire breath (in a slower amount of time too), it is PBAOE (which is useful if you melee a lot). This power is worth skipping. If you do take it 2 acc and 3 damage.
Consume: Minor Damage PBAOE. I miss this power. With hasten up most of the time and constantly running artic air I run out of endurance a lot. Its a pretty good utility power when you are low on blues. 2 acc and 3 recharge.
Blazing Bolt: Extreme Damage Snipe. It looks so cool. Most people hate their Dom Snipes, I wish I had mine back. Its a great opener after ice slick for a nasty LT. It is also very handy in pvp. It already has a good accuracy bonus, so if you get it slot it 1 acc, 3 damage, 2 interrupt decreases.
Blaze: High short ranged fire blast. It sounds sort of simple doesn't it? Well blaze unslotted does as much damage as a fully slotted fire blast. Slotted 3 damage you will do 170 damage at lvl 39 against an even level con. With Domination up and fiery embrace active you will do close to 300 per hit. The recharge seems to be medium, I would like it up more often. This really is a set defining power, it completes your attack chain and makes you a force to be reckoned with. At lvl 39 I am usually battling lvl 41 mobs so accuracy is important. Best slotting is 2 acc, 3 damage, 1 recharge.
Power Pools etc:
I went the Flight route because Air Superiority is great to use with Incinerate (fast medium damage) at early levels. I will soon be respeccing out of AS, and probably just take hover. Flight is ok but slow, 1 flight speed is good at high levels, at lower levels you will need 1 end reducer. The end consumption seems to scale as you increase your level.
I also have gone the Stamina route. Its hard to use Artic Air without it. It becomes pretty situational if you don't have stamina, its best to think of Artic Air as your armor.
I tried leadership, its worthless skip it if possible.
I also have hasten 3 slotted to recharge my holds and attacks as quickly as possible. I would not play a dominator (save mind as it has many single target mezzes) without hasten.
The key thing to remember about your dominator is to mitigate damage with BOI, Artic Air, and Ice patch, and attack as much as possible with your aoe and single target attacks.
I typically set incinerate or air superiority on auto so what ever Im close to I attack.
You will notice you play very differently solo than you do in a group. In a group you role is to get the soft controls out there, then once thats done, get on the outskirts of the control and build some domination. Your control will act as a great damage mitigation to the team. Be careful not to take too much aggro. Solo post lvl 26 you are a monster, use your single target attacks along with BOI and Artic Air as much as possible. Once you have Jack you are nearly unstoppable, you will be building domination faster than you ever beleived solo.
Finally at the highest level (post blaze) you are mostly unstoppable. I solo on relentless and its honestly mostly boring. The one thing to point out with this build is you will not build up domination as quickly as other builds. This is due to the amount of AOE controls (ice slick, AA, Shiver), and the 3 AOE fire attacks. I generally save my domination for the end of a mission rather than trying to build up 2-3 times as I would with mind/energy or grav/psi.
Most important of all, have fun.